KUALA LUMPUR, April 3: Defending champions India on Sunday lost the crucial match against Malaysia 0-1 in the six-nation junior hockey tournament, failing to enter the final. The day belonged to Malaysia as they completely outclassed India and romped into the final. India were heavy footed but Malaysia failed to take advantage of the situation and nail them in the first half itself.

The forward line created three penalty corners but the ball never got off flicker Zulkiffli Rejab’s stick as India’s runners were too quick for him.

In almost flawless Malaysian game, did not give away a single penalty corner for 35 minutes.

When half-time buzzer blew, score stood at 0-0 and Malaysia, who only needed a draw from the match, were looking good for the final.

The ten India players had to camp for long periods beside their goalkeeper Adrian d’Souza because Malaysia kept tremendous pressure on them as clock ticked furiously away.

But the ball just refused to sound the board. India started to become increasingly desperate as right up till 52nd minute, they had yet to get a single penalty corner for their ace Sandeep Singh to make an attempt.

Instead, a sterling run by Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin and S. Selvaraju got Malaysia their fourth penalty corner in 54th minute but ball was not trapped properly.

In 10 minutes to end Malaysia got fifth penalty corner and Zulkiffli Rejab flicked low and the stadium erupted with kind of joy last heard during 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games when Malaysia beat India to enter the final.

India’s misery was compounded when Vivek Gupta was sent to sin-bin when he brought down Kelvinder Singh with three minutes remaining.

Indian coach Harendra Singh was upset with two yellow cards and another decision to disallow a field goal by one of his players.

Nitin was first yellow carded because the umpire said he had clashed with a Malaysian player. Next Vivek Gupta was shown the yellow card for pushing another player.

This was the second time in this tournament that Indian players were penalized for rough play by the umpires.

The first instance was during their clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, when India were left with nine players in the last minutes after goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza and captain Prabodh Tirkey were both shown yellow cards.

The win put Malaysia in the title round against Pakistan on Monday while India will play South Korea for the bronze medal.—PPI