RANCHI: It was a special night for Malaysia as they held Asian Games silver medallists South Korea to a 1-1 draw in Women's Asian Champions Trophy at Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf Hockey Stadium here on Monday.
After wasting innumerable chances, South Korea eventually took the lead in the 35th minute as Suyoung Seo scored from a penalty corner, their sixth of the match. Even after that Korea kept pressing to double their lead but Malaysian goalkeeper Siti Nasir did exceptionally well to keep denying them from sounding the board.
On the other end, it was Malaysia who started creating chances towards the end of the third quarter and they should have scored following Siti Hussain's brilliant stick work down the left. But Azmyra Azhairy failed to connect with her pass properly and it went to waste.
Malaysia eventually struck two minutes from the final hooter when they won their second PC of the match. Nuraini Rashid slapped the ball hard toward the right and a diving Nur Azhar deflected it into the net.
It was their first goal of the tournament in three matches and they were expectedly overjoyed. It was also the first time in five matches that the world No. 19 team earned a draw against South Korea. On four occasions before this, they have always ended on the losing side.
Later in the day, there were no such surprises as Japan eased past Thailand with a 4-0 win. The team has so far remained unbeaten in the tournament and has shown improvement with every match.
For Japan, Mai Toriyama (29'), Yuri Nagai (34'), Kana Urata (35') and Chiko Fujibayashi (50') all scored a goal each. While the first three were field goals, Fujibayashi scored from the penalty corner and it was a screamer that went straight into the top right corner of the goal.
