Malaysia produced their best performance thus far to deny Japan a spot in the final after holding them to a 2-2 draw in their final round robin group match in the Sultan of Johor Cup at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium today. Shahmie Irfan Suhaimi emerged with the man of the match award after scoring the goal that had put Malaysia in the lead momentarily in an action packed third quarter in which three goals were scored through penalty corners. Japan took the lead in the 34th minute when Masato Kobayashi slotted home off a penalty corner rebound, which was then equalised by Muhammad Amirul Haniff Mamat in the 39th minute. Shahmie Irfan then put Malaysia in the lead in the 43rd minute when he slotted the ball between Japanese goalkeeper Kisho Kuroda's legs and into goal. A stunned Japan then pushed forward looking for an equaliser to give them a chance for a victory which would have put them into second spot on the table with a chance of making the final against Australia, who top the table with an unasaillable lead with 10 points despite having to play South Africa in the late match today. Japan's equaliser came in the 47th minute from another penalty corner courtesy of captain Ikumi Saeki. Despite ball possession spread almost equally between both teams for the rest of the fourth quarter as both took turns in attack in search of a winning goal, there was not further addition to the scoreline. Shahmie Irfan was happy with his performance and reassuring in his stand that the team will be able to lift their game further as they push on with preparations towards the Junior World Cup in 13 months. "I am thankful, especially to the support we have received. We have 13 months to go to the Junior World Cup and our target there is the semi-finals," said Shahmie Irfan. Malaysia's under-21 coach Muhamad Amin Rahim praised his players for lifting their game and producing a much improved performance to end the round robin stage. "I have to praise the players as we have at least ended the round robin stage with one point," said Amin. "The rest day yesterday was well utilised. I took the approach to allow the players to assess and analyse their performances and identify their own weaknesses, instead of just me analysing. "This worked and we could see the changes, so we will be using this method more as we progress for the players to really identify and understand their weaknesses and assist them with improving their performances," he added. Malaysia will likely face Japan again in the 5th-6th classification match tomorrow and Amin sees an advantage for Malaysia as it will be the earlier match under higher temperatures. He added that beyond this tournament, the coaching team have identified key areas, particularly in the physical aspects where the team need much improvement. "We can see that physically our players are losing out to the competition and we need to slot in some blocks in training focusing on improving the physical aspect of our players. That will be done immediately as we will be discussing with the national team's fitness coaches on a programme. Once our players are in better physical condition, I am certain they will be able to make better decisions on the pitch and out overall performance will improve," said Amin. In an earlier match outgoing defending champions Great Britain and India played out a 5-5 draw.