MADRID, March 8: Malaysia held Pakistan to a scoreless draw in Pool B of the Olympic qualifying hockey tournament on Monday. Pakistan must wait another day before earning a certain semifinal berth from Pool B.

Malaysia's coach, Paul Lissek, said on Saturday he had a plan to beat Pakistan. The plan was to play defensively and score a penalty corner goal and it frustrated Pakistan into making mistakes in attack.

"It was like playing against a wall," said Pakistan's coach, Roelant Oltmans. "But I have to compliment Malaysia for having a well structured defence."

Malaysia conceded three penalty corners to Pakistan with Sohail Abbas unable to score from the opportunities. Oltmans was critical of his team for failing to score.

"The concentration by the players taking the penalty corners was poor today," Oltmans said. "And there was poor decision-making in attack. It was frustrating the team made so many mistakes."

Lissek meanwhile was delighted with the performance of his team. "I must give congratulations to my team to be able to draw against Pakistan which is one of the best teams in the world. It was a great result to hold Pakistan to a draw," Lissek said.

Lissek praised goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin and captain Kuhan Shanmuganathan for their efforts. "Roslan was very good in goal today. He played with confidence and made good saves," Lissek said. "My captain did a great job keeping the team focused today," Lissek added before admitting he had one disappointment in the way his team played. "Our counterattacks were not good today and we lack a ball-getter like (Spain's) Pol Amat to get the long overhead passes deep into opposition territory."

Pakistan have 10 points and leads Pool B however New Zealand and India can also reach 10 points if they win their last matches in Pool B on Tuesday against Pakistan and Canada.

The outcome of those matches will decide the semifinal berths of the top two teams in Pool B. India defeated New Zealand 2-0 earlier to keep alive their chance of a semi-final berth. Belgium drew 2-2 with Canada, the sixth drawn match between the teams in their last six meetings.

India scored in the second minute from a movement started by Gagan Ajit Singh in midfield and ending with a simple flick into goal by Arjun Halappa. Three minutes from time Deepak scored India's second goal following a strong move up the left by Baljit and Prabhjot with Prabhjot's centre finding Deepak free in front of goal to score into the empty goal.

India conceded six penalty corners but New Zealand's ace flicker, Hayden Shaw, could only get one shot away which was saved by India goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan on the glove. India had nine chances go astray from Ignace Tirkey, Prabhjot Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon and Deepak Thakur.

"Against Pakistan we gave away four penalty corners and they scored four times but today we had five penalty corners against us and we saved them all with excellent defence," Rajinder added. -AFP

Pakistan 0 Malaysia 0

India 2 New Zealand 0

Belgium 2 Canada 2