Malaysia Tigers and New Zealand played out a 1-1 draw in the opening match of the International Festival of Hockey at the State Netball & Hockey Centre in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Drag-flick specialist Shahril Saabah kept Malaysia Tigers in front with a penalty corner conversion two minutes into the third quarter via a powerful drive which sailed past goalkeeper Richard Joyce.
The Black Sticks needed a late goal by Jared Panchia who pounced on the opportunity to drive it in from close range in the 58th minute.
Australia, ranked world No 1, came back from an early goal conceded to beat Asian champions India 3-2. Jeremy Haywood scored twice (24th and 36th minutes) and Trent Mitton found the net in the 43rd minute. Rupinder Pal Singh converted two penalty corners (21’, 53’) for India.
In Thursday’s matches, Malaysia takes on India and Australia plays New Zealand.
Malaysian team head coach, Stephen van Huizen, said: “We are happy to get away with a draw in this game. With a lot of young boys in the team it was good for the team tough we did make some mistakes along the way.
“Our second game against India will be tough. We are preparing for the World League Round 2. We took Kumar out after the first half and introduced Hafizuddin (Othman). This is also part of our plan to boost our reserve goalkeepers,” he added.
Syed Mohamad Shafiq Syed Cholan, Amirol Aideed and Muhammad Firdaus Omar earned their first international caps against the Black Sticks.
“The team started off slowly and took time to get into the game. The young players did well and would have learned a lot. Syed Cholan, Firdaus and Aideed did well at this level,” he added.
It was the seventh meeting between the two teams this year. New Zealand won two, drew one and lost one when Malaysia played a series of matches in Tauranga in March. They then shared two 3-3 draws at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia a month later.
World No 8 New Zealand was left to rue a failure to take advantage of a wealth of possession and turn them into shots on target. The Black Sticks ran up eight penalty corners but a combination of poor execution and some determined defensive work by Malaysia thwarted them.
Malaysia’s first half goalkeeper S. Kumar produced one superb save from a Kane Russell drag flick before halftime but no matter the amount of pressure the Black Sticks were unable to cash in.
New Zealand had a host of players returning to the squad who contested the inaugural Trans-Tasman Trophy in Auckland last week, which culminated in the first win over Australia in New Zealand since 1967.
It is a regrouping time for the Black Sticks after the disappointment of the Rio Olympics, when they were bundled out in the quarter-finals by a late flurry of goals by Germany.
