Malaysia let down by poor penalty corner conversions

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s hockey coach Roelant Oltmans was not too pleased with his team’s penalty corners’ conversion rate in the first Test match against New Zealand at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

Malaysia earned five penalty corners in the match yesterday but drag flickers Muhd Razie Abdul Rahim and Faizal Saari (pic) failed to get it right.

The Kiwis, who are in Kuala Lumpur for 10 days to prepare for the World Cup in Bhubaneswar, India, from Nov 28-Dec 14, won the match 2-1.

Malaysia’s defence was in shambles as they conceded a field goal as early as the second minute.

Stephen Jenness made a solo effort beating three defenders before slamming the ball from the top semi-circle past Malaysian goalkeeper S. Kumar.

The Kiwis could have increased the lead in the 10th minute but George Muir’s effort in the semi-circle hit the bar.

The Kiwis continued to pile on the pressure and they increased the lead through Aidan Sarikaya in the 17th minute only to see Malaysia reduced the deficit five minutes later.

Meor Mohd Azuan Hassan was brought down in the semi-circle by Kane Rusell and Malaysia was awarded a penalty stroke, which was converted by Faizal.

Oltmans, who had mixed reaction, said after the match: “If you want to win matches you must convert the penalty corners but it didn’t happen today. However, the structure of the team is there and they are shaping up well for the World Cup.”

“I hope to see better penalty corners execution rate in our next two Test matches scheduled for Nov 20 and 22,” said Oltmans.

New Zealand coach Darren Smith said he was rather happy with the match as the Malaysians gave their best.

“We did well in the first two quarters but Malaysia played better in the last two quarters,” said Smith.