Malaysia

BY S. RAMAGURU

KUALA LUMPUR: Last year's overall champions Tenaga Nasional sent Maybank crashing to their first defeat with a clinical 2-0 win in a Malaysia Hockey League match at the KL Hockey Stadium in Jalan Pantai here yesterday.

A penalty corner goal in each half was enough to give Tenaga full points in their fight for the league title. Tenaga were the more enterprising team and credit must be given to their defenders for their ability to get the ball out of danger quickly.

Veteran Nor Saiful Zaini at 39 proved that he can still contribute at top level when he slotted home their first goal from a direct hit which deflected into goal after hitting the goalkeeper's pads in the 18th minute.

And in the 51st minute Nor Saiful instead of a direct hit relayed it to Kelvinder Singh on his right and the national junior had the easy task of slotting past the goalkeeper.

Tenaga coach K. Rajan said they have managed to get one of the two results for the weekend and hope the team can keep up their good display in the next match as well.

?I must say that our defence was the mainstay of the team today and overall the players managed to give their best,? said Rajan.

?It was good that we are getting the opportunities upfront and now I must get our midfielders to stamp their mark each time they play.?

Tenaga and BSN have 12 points from four matches.

But the leaders for the moment has gone to Sapura who thumped TUDM 15-0 at the Sungei Petani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

The defending league champions also has 12 points after five matches and hold a better goal difference compared to the other two teams.

The Telekom Malaysia-RMR match at the Klang Pandamaran Stadium was abandoned after 10 minutes of play due to lighting failure at the stadium.

Telekom was leading through a Len Aiyappa fifth minute. The technical committee will fix the match at a later date.

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