Tenaga Nasional Berhad senior team and its development side TNB Thunderbolts had a field day in the TNB-Malaysian Hockey League matches on Sunday (Jan 19).
TNB defeated an under-strength Matador Hockey Club 6-1 at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil while Thunderbolts registered a 5-2 victory over Nurinsafi Sporting.
South Korean Jang Jong Hyun converted penalty corners in the 21st and 59th minutes after Shello Silverius started the goal rush in the fifth minute via a field goal. Muhammad Azrai Abu Kamal (20th), Syed Mohamad Syafiq Syed Cholan (40th), and Mohamad Harris Iskandar (60th) also added their names to the scoring list.
Former national junior squad trainee Eswaran George scored Matador’s consolation goal in the 41st minute from open play.
Matador started the match without Pakistan’s international player Abdul Manan who fell ill while Indian national Ankush attended to personal matters and will return for the next matches against China’s Liaoning (Jan 23) and TNB Thunderbolts.
TNB dominated the match for most parts of the four quarters despite Matador making strong inroads. However, Matador was reduced to 10 players in the 17th minute when penalty corner specialist and defender Sufyan Khan received a yellow card and was sent to the sin bin to cool down.
TNB took advantage of the situation by scoring two goals in a space of one minute. National team forward Azrai Aizad scored a field goal in the 20th minute and Jang converted a penalty corner in the 21st minute for a 3-0 lead in the second quarter.
A penalty corner converted by Syed Syafiq Cholan in the 40th minute saw TNB extend their lead to 4-0 but 20-year-old Eswaran, who was dropped from the national junior squad final selection for the 2023 Junior World Cup, reduced the deficit to 1-4 by calmly placing the ball into the net past goalkeeper Muhammad Hairi Abdul Rahman in the 41st minute.
Matador’s hopes of making any progress were further dashed when they were reduced to ninemen following the yellow card suspensions of Pakistanis Adeel Latif and Abdul Waheed Ashraf Rana in the 49th minute.
In another match, penalty corner specialist Perabu Tangaraja returned to form, leaving Armed Forces frustrated with a four-goal blitz (7th, 19th, 29th, and 41st) that saw University Teknologi MARA register a 5-2 victory at the same venue.
The 21-year-old, who had turned down national senior team selection for personal reasons, was also instrumental in UiTM’s 3-1 win over Maybank. Former national player Muhammad Rashid Baharon also scored for UiTM.
Armed Forces replied through Sufian Marsom’s third minute penalty corner conversion, and Muhammad Noor Firdaus Rosdi’s field goal in the 27th minute.
TNB climbed to third spot in the table standings with nine points – six points behind leaders Terengganu Hockey Team (THT) and three points behind Maybank. UiTM are in fourth spot (6), followed by Thunderbolts in fifth spot (6), Matador down to sixth position (3), Armed Forces (3), Nurinsafi (3) and Liaoning in ninth spot.
Australia’s Northern Territory will make their journey in the TNBMHL in the first week of February 2025.
