Melbourne: Nikkin Thimmaiah scored a brace as the Indian men’s hockey team got the better of Malaysia 4-2 to register their first win in the round robin encounter of the 4 Nations Invitational hockey tournament, here Thursday. In a closely-fought contest, India scored two goals in the final quarter of the match to earn their first points.
India got off to a dominating start in the opening period of the game, pressing high and consistently effecting turnovers to keep Malaysia in their own half. But India could not transform the dominance into goals and both sides went to the first break with the score goalless.
The second session began with India again maintaining territorial advantage. It finally proved worthwhile in the 24th minute as Sardar Singh and Satbir Singh worked their way down the middle. The latter found Thimmaiah at the edge of the circle who beat a rival defender before scoring with a rasping drive.
Nine minutes into the third quarter, Malaysia hit back with an equaliser with Faizal Saari converting a penalty corner. The parity didn’t last long though, as India won their first penalty corner almost from the restart and Rupinder Pal Singh made no mistake to give a 2-1 lead to India.
In the opening minutes of the final quarter, Malaysia earned two successive penalty corners. Shahril Saabah converted the second to draw level again for Malaysia.
The equaliser from Malaysia served as a blessing in disguise for India as they stepped up their game. The dominance paid off in the 55th minute with Thimmaiah scoring his second goal of the game. The next minute Akashdeep Singh scored to make the issue safe.
Agencies
