By Tony Mariadass

It was not the first time, but Malaysia yet once again squandered a comfortable 3-1 lead against host India to go down 3-4 in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai last night.

At the Jakarta Asian Games final in 2018, Malaysia after taking a 5-2 lead against Japan, allowed the latter pull level at 6-6, before Malaysia lost in the shootout 3-1 for an historical gold medal and a place for the Olympics.

Last night, India’s Jugraj Singh scored in the 9th minute to give India an early lead, but Arzai Aizad Abu Kamal equalised in the 14th to make it 1-1.

Then in the second quarter, Razie Rahim (18th) converted a penalty corner to make it 2-1 for Malaysia before Muhamad Aminudin Mohd Zin struck late in the second quarter (28th) off a penalty corner to make 3-1.

India’s came back in the third quarter, through Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh (tournament’s top-scorer with eight goals in six matches) who converted a penalty stroke to make it 2-3 and before Gurjant Singh came up with the equaliser.

Then Akashdep Singh dashed Malaysia’s hope of winning the tournament for the first time since it’s inception in 2011, when four minutes from time score to take the lead and see India win the title for the fourth time.

Malaysia started off aggressively with their fast attacking style giving India problems to contain them last night.

But India despite under pressure, were the first to score.

However Malaysia’s 3-1 lead went up in smoke in 11 minutes of nightmare which saw them surrender the game to India.

Although a two-goal lead is not comfortable margin in modern day hockey, but Malaysia must surely be rueing their loss of not being able to capitalise on their lead and a fine run in the tournament. Malaysia had only lost 0-5 to India in their group match earlier.

“It is a frustrating. But I think at the end of the day, we came here with a purpose of wanting to pick up some key points from this tournament and our main focus is the Asian Games,” said national hockey coach Arul Anthoni Selvaraj.

“We definitely picked up a lot of key points, especially on how to play India. And the next point is how to win the tournament.

“Of course India playing at that level, pro league being top four in the world. And their level, fitness strength and speed is a different class. But we managed to scare them in way.

“But was it enough to finish off the game? That is the thing we need to go back pick out how to continue maintaining the performance, character and confidence to finish of the match.”

It will be back to the drawing board for Arul, as he prepares the team in their final leg before the Asian Games in Hangzhou next month.

In all fairness to Arul, the team did give a good account of themselves in India and now needs to fine tune in some areas and build on the character of the team.