India crushed defending champion Malaysia’s ‘dream run’ in front of 3,000 fans by seizing victory 5-4 in Group A match of the 8th Men’s Junior Asia Cup at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium yesterday.
The host nation celebrated Shahril Saabah’s opening goal just 25 seconds into the game with pom-pom and the 20-year-old lad went on to score a hat-trick (20th and 66th) but India struck back through Mandeep Singh (10th, 61st), Gurjant Singh (40th) and Harmanpreet Singh (46th, 56th) to keep their pride intact.
The Malaysian forwards rained heavily on the Indian defence and earned a 61st minute goal to close the gap at 4-5 through Sufi Ismat Rohulamin but that was best they could go as time ran out.