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IPOH,Malaysia New Zealand lived up to their favorites tag in the SultanAzlan Shah Cup Monday when they snatched a late 3-2 win over formerworld champions Pakistan, who are now ruled out of the finals.
Thematch was headed for a draw when a quick counter attack rattledPakistan right half Zeeshan Ali, whose foul in the D gave away apenalty stroke converted in the 68th minute by Dean Couzins.
TheKiwis, ranked world number seven, initially took the lead in theseventh minute when Priyesh Bhana, making his debut, scored from afield attempt.
Pakistan, ranked eighthin the world, were back on level terms a minute later when DilawarHussain deflected a Mohamed Imran penalty corner into the right side ofthe net.
The Pakistanis gained inconfidence and in the 23rd minute Mohamed Imran sent a direct flick tobeat goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex, taking the score to 2-1 for thePakistanis at the end of the half.
NewZealand changed their game plan in the second half, paying dividends asthey began to dominate play, and Nicholas Haig scored their equaliserin the 44th minute.
A sustained raid onthe Pakistan semi-circle finally paid off when they forced an error toearn the penalty stroke and 27-year-old Couzins made sure of fullpoints for the Kiwis.
'We did change our play in the second half and it made a difference,' said New Zealand coach Shane Mcleod.
Pakistan are now out of the running for a finals berth, after two defeats in a row with a 2-3 loss to Malaysia on Sunday.
'Withtwo defeats we cannot hope to finish among the top two. It was a badperformance from my players and Im disappointed. We had a game planbut the players did not follow it,' said Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan.
'Nodoubt that this is a learning curve for my players but we must improvewith each match. Everything went wrong for us.''We must now pickourselves up and try to win the remaining two matches against India andEgypt,' he said.
In the second match hosts Malaysia chalked up their second straight win by beating Egypt 4-1.
The Malaysians had a 1-0 first half lead through a field goal from Ismail Abu in the 27th minute.
EngkuAbdul Malek increased the lead in the 39th minute with a penalty cornergoal but Ahmed Abd El Hakiem pulled one back for Egypt in the 45th.
TheMalaysians finished the match stronger with two goals from Chua BoonHuat. His goals from two penalty corner deflections came in the 64thand 68th minutes.
The teams will take abreak on Tuesday and the tournament resumes on Wednesday with NewZealand playing Egypt and Malaysia lining up against India.
