Arch rivals India and Pakistan made brilliant starts against Japan and Canada respectively in the opening day of the 25th Silver Jubilee Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Stadium in Ipoh today.
The Indians clawed back from a 17th minute Kenji Kitazato penalty corner goal to carve a 2-1 victory over the Japanese , ranked World No 16, while five-time Sultan Azlan Shah Cup champions Pakistanis edged Canada 3-1.
Drag-flick specialist Harmanpreet Singh, who fired nine penalty corner goals in his maiden trip to Malaysia by featuring in the 2014 Sultan of Johor Cup and returned a year later to score 15 goals in the Junior Asia Cup in Kuantan, showed his pedigree once again by knocking home a penalty corner in the 25th minute for the equaliser.
India went 2-1 ahead two minutes into the third quarter through a field goal from team captain Sardar Singh who was named Man of the Match.
However, despite a clear dominance from India in the third and fourth quarters, the Japanese stood their ground but it was good enough for India’s head coach Roelant Oltmans to make a winning start.
The Indians take on world champions and eight-time Cup champions Australia in the second match on Thursday.
India, who has always been one of the best teams in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, winning the title five times, suffered an early blow four hours before start of their match against Japan when they received news that playmaker Manpreet Singh’s father passed away in India. The player boarded a flight back home from Kuala Lumpur.
Pakistan, ranked 10 in the world, last played the 14-ranked Canadians at the 2010 World Cup but showed their motley fans here today that they belong to the elite group by giving all their best and were a far more enterprising side under the scorching heat.
After a low-key start, Rizwan Ali had a great chance to put his side ahead with just Canadian goalkeeper David Carter in his way but was slow to react and defender Scott Tupper quickly cleared the ball away for any possible danger.
Muhamad Arslan Qadir, however, ended the agony of searching for the opening goal by putting Pakistan ahead in the 27th minute from a field goal and came back moments later to increase the scorelinee to 2-0 via a penalty corner. The Canadians clawed back in the 48th minute as Richard Hildreth pounced on a cross from Matthew Sarmento into an open goal to pull one back.
Pakistan earned their second penalty corner in the 52nd minute and Muhammad Arshad executed it well to the top right of the goalmouth as the five-time champions celebrated a well deserved victory after a long absence from the international arena.
Pakistan head coach, Muhammad Khawaja Junaid, said: “We have to execute good hockey and the players did well today. It was a good start although we last played Canada some many years ago. I think if we continue this kind of momentum we should be among the top teams here.”
“If we look into the teams competing here Pakistan is the ‘weakest’ since we did not qualify for the Olympics and is ranked 10 in the world. So we have a lot of catching up to do and this tournament is good for the younger players to gain the much needed experience,” said Khawaja.
Pakistan next faces defending champions New Zealand on Saturday.
