olice, Selangor and Perlis made great strides in the opening day of the TNB 53rd Tun Abdul Razak Cup Division Two tournament at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The Cops defeated Kelantan 5-3 while Selangor, who won the Tun Razak Cup 10 times since 1963, scored a 6-3 win over Armed Forces.
Police opened accounts through Mohd Rizal Abu Hanifa nine minutes into the game with a field goal but Mohd Aminuddin Zin equalised for Kelantan in the 17th minute via penalty corner before Baljit Singh shot Police ahead a minute later in similar fashion.
Wee Lorence kept Police 3-1 in front just three minutes after the interval with a field goal. Kelantan, however, threw everything they could and once again levelled score at 2-2 with a great field goal effort from Kamal Ridzuan Kamaruddin. But Faizal Reza’s 43rd minute goal from open play and Baljit’s second penalty corner strike (54th) kept Police in comfortable territory.
Kelantan made efforts to close the gap but only succeeded in Mohammad Sufian Masrom’s 60th minute penalty corner.
“I am surprised that Kelantan played so well. There are new players in our team so the combination is not so satisfactory. As we go on we should play much better,” said Police head coach, K. Rajan. “Today is our first match and all I need is for the senior players to combine well with the youngsters.”
Selangor had a field day against Armed Forces. Coach Nasir Maidin’s side took a 4-0 lead at the interval with goals from Nor Nasriq Farhan (4th, FG), Mohammad Amanullah Abd Aziz (30th, FG), Harmesh Singh (31st, FG) and Muhammad Noor Faez (35th, PC) to start their campaign on a winning note.
The soldiers, however, closed the gap 2-4 through Muhammad Khairul (40th) and Hushaini Ali (45th) field goals but it was Selangor who had better ball possession in the last 25 minutes of play as Muhammad Zamri Zainal (54th) and Muhammad Faisal Kamaruddin (55th) made it 6-2.
Armed Forces were far from finished and came back in the very next minute with a penalty corner goal from Mohd Syafik Mohd Azmi but that was as far as they could go as Selangor earned their first full points.
In another match, Perlis defeated Kedah 4-1. Perlis scorers were Muhammad Atif Ghazali (8th, FG), Azhad Akmal (36th, FG), Azroy Azeman (55th, FG) and Nazmi Farizal (59th, PC). Kedah replied through Shello Silverius (33rd, FG).
Results – Division 2: Police 5 Kelantan 3; Selangor 6 Armed Forces 3; Perlis 4 Kedah 1.
Fixtures – Sunday (28, Nov, 2015): Selangor v Kedah (6pm, Pitch 1); Perlis v Sarawak (Pitch 2, 6pm); Police v Armed Forces (Pitch 1, 8pm).
