Malaysians Offered Tough Competition for Indian Team in the Asian Champions Trophy for Hockey

Hockey is the national game of India. Although hockey doesn’t have fans as much as the game of cricket, but still there are many who cherish this game. One of the prestigious platforms for the game of hockey is the Asian Champions Trophy Tournament. The Asian Hockey Champions Trophy is an event held annually by the Asian Hockey Federation.

It features the Asian Games top six field hockey teams competing in a round robin format. Pakistan and India are the most successful teams in Asian Hockey Champions Trophy; Pakistan and India have won the trophy twice. Recently while defending themselves against the Champions, Malaysia in the Asian Champions Trophy Tournament for Hockey, the Indian team was held at a goalless draw, but despite that India maintained their pole position at the points table. Presently both the Indian team and the Malaysians have 10 points each from four outings in the preliminary league. In the beginning, India's performance was not that great. They picked up later during the match. India missed a lot of chances during the match. At first, Hardik Singh let a wondering opportunity go from his hands. Then, Harmanpreet Singh's penalty corner flick was blocked by the Malaysian goalkeeper and then Mandeep failed to get a touch on the long diagonal ball. In the second half of the match, the Indians forced two penalty corners but unfortunately failed in producing a goal bearing shot. At the same time, Tengku Tajjuddin was shown a yellow card for his foul against Captain Manpreet Singh. This proved beneficial for the Indian team. Harendra Singh, Indian Chief Coach was extremely disappointed at India's not up to the mark performance. He stated that we at the level of international hockey cannot be doing such immature things. We can’t be missing chances. These chances could have been fruitful opportunities. On the other hand the Malaysian coach stated that they had real tough time facing India when their team got reduced to 10 due to default committed by Tengku Tajuddin. He stated that this situation put a lot of pressure on them. They became extremely perplexed at that time. If this wouldn’t have happened they would have performed way better than they did now. On October 31, India will play their fifth round robin match against Korea. All eyes are presently focused on India's performance in the coming matches. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best of possible results.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/india-held-to-goalless-draw-by-malaysia-in-asian-champions-trophy