# India snatch a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Malaysia
# USA hammered again – this time lose 11-0 to Great Britain
# Australia beat Japan 4-0 for their second win
Malaysia fell to their second straight defeat – going down to two-time champions India despite taking an early lead in the 7th Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 Invitational Hockey Tournament at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium in Johor Bahru on Monday.
And the man who destroyed the Malaysians was India’s hitman Dilpreet Singh who scored a brace after Malaysia had taken the lead as early as the third minute through Firdaus Omar.
Firdaus sent the home supporters wild when he fired a powerful low drive to beat India goalkeeper Pankaj Kumar Rajak all the way. However, Malaysia failed to ride on the momentum and allowed India back into the picture.
Dilpreet, always a danger when on the ball drove home the equalizer on 20 minutes and netted the winner two minutes before end of the third quarter.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the third quarter and our finishing was poor…we need to work on this,” said Malaysia team manager Nor Saiful Zaini after the match.
In the first match of the day Australia romped to a 4-0 win over Japan – their second win in as many matches after their record breaking 19-0 whitewash of newcomers United States of America on Sunday.
Nathan Ephraums opened scoring for the Australians before Nathaniel Steward, Liam Flynn and Andrew Scanlon got their names on the scoresheet.
The second match USA were at the receiving end again – this time losing 11-0 to Great Britain and are fast becoming the whipping boys of the tournament.
The defeat for the tournament debutants, however, was the Americans out up a far better performance compared to the match against the Australians.
The big defeat, however, has not broken down the Americans and in coach Brian Schledorn’s own words “would like to think positively in every match” and described the match against Britain as a “better performance”.
Schledorn praised his goalkeeper Nathaniel O’Lari and defender Zaid Hassan for a “good job” which kept the scoreline down.
Great Britain scored a hat-trick through Scott Duncan and a brace each by Cameron Golden and Benjamin Francis while Callum McKenzie, James Sutcliffe, Edward Way and Alexander Blumfield to complete the rout.BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
RESULTS (Day 2, 23rd Oct)
Great Britain 11 USA 0
Australia 4 Japan 0
India 2 Malaysia 1