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Asian Games: Malaysia dash India's gold medal hopes in hockey

India’s dream to seal 2012 London Olympics berth shattered after Malaysia stun Jose Brasa’s boys 3-4 via golden goal in the semifinals.

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For all the thrilling moments, sports can be cruel too. Ask the Netherlands football team of the 1974 World Cup, the Brazilian team of the 1982 World Cup, the West Indies cricket team of the 1983 World Cup. All of them were overwhelming favourites but glory eluded them.

The Indian hockey players felt the same mind-numbing feeling at the Aoti Sports Center’s Main Hockey Stadium on Tuesday. They were by-far the most impressive team in the fray here. But, Rajpal and Co’s dream of the gold medal around their neck, an automatic Olympic qualification berth and the cash windfall which awaits the champions, all evaporated on a cold, dark evening in Guangzhou.

Indian hockey plunged into new depths of despair following their heartbreaking defeat to Malaysia via the golden goal in the semifinal match. The defeat was all the more difficult to fathom as Rajpal and Co never for a moment looked like losing the game in the regulation period of play.

After an even first half, the Indians mesmerised the Malaysians with a free-flowing passing game, but somehow could not translate their superiority into goals. The man to make the difference in the final result was Malaysia’s experienced custodian, Subramiam Kumar, who stood like a rock in front of the Indian forwards.

Although, Malaysia sounded the death knell in the sixth minute of extra time, the decisive battle was fought after India had taken a 3-2 lead in the 54th minute.

It was a period when the Indian forwards were in menacing mood and threatened to bury Malaysian hopes with wave after wave of attack. Just that they didn’t know a way past the Malaysian bartender. Twice within a few minutes of each other Kumar came up with stunning saves to thwart Shivendra Singh from point blank range. A two-goal cushion at that stage would have most probably meant the end of Malaysia’s sojourn.

Then after Rahim Muhammad Amin had given his team the lifeline with the equaliser in the 66th minute, Kumar came up with another invaluable save when India got a penalty corner with a minute to go.

The stars too favoured the tenacious Malaysians as India’s ace penalty corner hitter Sandeep Singh picked up an injury in the second period and sat out for most part of that half.

Earlier, Malaysia took the lead through Tengku Jalil before Sandeep equalised for India with a penalty corner a few seconds before the interval. A goal by India’s Tushar Khandeker soon after resumption was neutralised by Azlan Misron 12 minutes later. After the two teams were locked 3-3 in regulations period, Malaysia got the big break in extra time when they won the penalty corner.

Rahim struck his second goal off the evening to hand Malaysia a thrilling win.

“The number of chances we got, if we could have managed to convert even 50 percent of them we could have easily won. All credit to their goalkeeper. Malaysia’s success rate in the penalty corners was another reason for their win,” said India captain Rajpal.

“On another day we might have lost by four or five goals but today we availed of all the chances we got,” Malaysia’s coach Stephen George van Huzen said.

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