Our women dish out inconsistent displays in friendlies

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian women’s hockey team played inconsistently in two friendly matches against New South Wales Institute of Sports (NSWIS) at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre.

In the first match played on Saturday, K. Dharmaraj’s charges did well to win 4-2 but in the second match played on Sunday, they were beaten 3-0.

Hanis Nadia Onn, Fatin Shafika Shukri, Nur Amirah Shakirah Zulkifli and Nuraini Abdul Rashid scored the goals in the first match.

In the second match, not only did the forwards fail to get a single goal, Malaysia also wasted eight penalty corners.

Dharmaraj, who has been in charge of the women’s team since January 2016, said scoring goals is his team’s main problem.

“In the two friendlies, we did well to create many scoring opportunities. And I hope that my players will be ready to give their best in the Games,” said Dharmaraj.

Malaysia, ranked 22nd in the world, open their Group A campaign against world No. 10 India on Friday.

Their other matches are against world No. 14 South Africa (April 7), world No. 2 England (April 9) and world No. 26 Wales (April 11).

Group B comprises Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland and Ghana.

In the last Games in Glasgow in 2014, Malaysia only managed to score just two goals in five matches.

In the group matches, they failed to net a single goal. They lost three matches to Australia (4-0), Scotland (2-0), England (5-0) and drew 0-0 with Wales.

They finished fourth in the group and in the playoff for seventh placing, Malaysia beat Canada 3-0 in the penalty shootout after both teams were tied 2-2 in regulation time.