Peerless Malaysia set to bag World Series hockey title

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will face Thailand in the final of the women’s World Series hockey tournament in Singapore tomorrow.

Coach K. Dharmaraj’s players kept a 100% record by winning all five round-robin matches.

They wrapped up their fixtures by outplaying hosts Singapore 5-0 at the Sengkang hockey stadium yesterday.

Thailand outplayed Kazakhstan 4-0 to finish second in the six-nation tournament with 12 points from four wins and one defeat after the round-robin fixtures.

Malaysia and Thailand have qualified for the Round Two of the World Series. The dates and venue of the competition have not been decided by International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Malaysia started off well by taking the lead in the first minute through Nur Zafirah Aziz yesteday.

Five minutes later, they doubled the score off another field goal scored by Wan Norfaiezah Mohd Saiuti.

Malaysia continued to pile up the pressure and added three more goals through Nur Amirah Shakirah Zulkifli (30th), Fatin Shafika Mohd Shukri (55th) and Nuraini Abdul Rashis (58th).

Team manager Lailin Abu Hassan said they fielded some younger players against Singapore to gain exposure.

“We started off well by taking a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes of the match but we were disappointed for missing a number of sitters.

“We want the players to play much better in the final to win the tournament,” said the former international.

Malaysia, who beat Thailand 4-0 in their round-robin encounter, will start off as favourites to win the final tomorrow.