By NNN-Bernama
Ipoh : Malaysia took the lead twice but failed to hold on and had to be satisfied with a 2-2 draw against Pakistan in their opening match of the 16th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium on Saturday.
It was a repeat of the Doha Asian Games results where Malaysia drew 2-2 with Pakistan in December.
Malaysia started on superbly taking the match to the Pakistanis from the first whistle and was rewarded with a penalty corner.
The home team made good use of the penalty corner and shot into the lead when penalty corner specialist Zulkifli Rejab sent a grounder that caught Pakistan goalkeeper Salman Akbar off guard in the 6th minute.
With Malaysia leading 1-0, Pakistan started attacking with more men and found the equaliser through Zeeshan Asraf through a penalty corner in the 11th minute.
In the 15th minute, Malaysia found themselves with another penalty corner but Jiwa Mohan’s attempt went wide.
Malaysia once again broke away when Ismail Abu collected a loose ball in the “D” before sending it flying into the goalmouth in the 29th minute.
Pakistan returned with a vengeance in the second half and was rewarded with a penalty corner which Imran Warsi converted in the 42nd minute.
Just three minutes before fulltime, Pakistan received a penalty corner but the Malaysians managed to clear the ball out of the danger zone to end the match 2-2.
“I’m very happy with the way the boys played. The forwards played very well especially Ismail Abu, and the fitness level of the team was superb.
“It was a good result and hopefully we will have a good game tomorrow against Canada,” said Malaysian coach Sarjit Singh
MALAYSIA: S. Kumar, Megat Azrafiq Megat Termizi, Engku Malik Engku Mohamad, Jiwa Mohan, Zulkifli Rejab, Baljit Singh, Azlan Misron, Kevinder Singh, Jivan Mohan, Chua Boon Huat, Ismail Abu.
PAKISTAN: Salman Akbar, Zeeshan Asraf, Ehsan Ullah, Khan Imran, Adnan Maqsood, Sajjad Anwar, Rehan Butt, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Tariq Aziz, Akhtar Ali, Shabir Khan.