KUALA LUMPUR, 27 May 2005 — India needed a last-gasp penalty corner from Len Aiyappa to snatch a 2-1 victory over South Africa in their first match of the 14th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Aiyappa smashed home the winner for his second goal of the game after the South Africans had fought back from a goal down.
In an earlier match, Pakistan opened their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 win over New Zealand at the National Hockey stadium in Bukit Jalil. India, who appointed Rajinder Singh Jnr as head coach last month following the sacking of German Gerhard Rach, started nervously and failed to dominate their opponents as had been expected.
They showed more urgency after the break and took the lead in the 47th minute through penalty corner specialist Aiyappa.
But South Africa stunned the Indians just three minutes later when they equalized through Clyde Abrahamas.
South Africa hit the crossbar from a short corner minutes before Aiyappa stepped up to slam home the winner at the stroke of full-time.
Pakistan, fielding a largely junior squad as they build for the future, were 2-1 up by half-time but spent most of the second half on the back-foot as the Kiwis desperately sought an equalizer. The experienced Philip Burrows actually hit the backboard for New Zealand with five minutes remaining but his effort was disallowed as Pakistan held on for victory.
Pakistan, champions here in 2003 and runners-up last year, took the lead through an Adnan Zakir field goal on 15 minutes but the impressive Gareth Brooks equalized only seven minutes later. Muhammad Imran scored the winning goal three minutes before half-time from a penalty corner.
Pakistan relied heavily on youngster Imran Warsi, who is hailed as the new Sohail Abbas, the teams Dutch-based record goalscorer who was ignored for the tournament because he failed to attend training sessions.
“I told him not to put too much pressure on himself and play his own game instead of trying to play like Sohail,” said Pakistan coach Tahir Zaman. “We were a bit loose in the first 10 minutes then we got into a rhythm.
“It was just good to get this first win.”
Both teams will be disappointed with their penalty corner conversion rates. New Zealand in particular had several chances to equalize in the second half through short corners but were let down by poor finishing.
Pakistan arrived in Kuala Lumpur with 12 junior players in their 18-man squad while New Zealand have brought 11 players who played at last years Athens Olympics with five of their squad under 22 years old.
The Kiwis are using the tournament as part of their buildup for next years Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the World Cup in Germany.
