Malaysia

Debutants Telekom Malaysia came back from a goal down to defeat hard-hitting Royal Malay Regiment (RMR) 5-3 in a tense Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) match at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium here yesterday.

The match also saw RMR player Mohd Azahari Yusoff being flashed a red card by umpire Borhan Mustapa for hitting Telekom's Mohd Nor Affazly Abdul Gaffar on his shoulder with the hockey stick in the 62nd minute. It was the first red card in the league.

RMR players were also frustrated with umpire Borhan for disallowing a field goal scored late in the second-half.

The players charged at Borhan immediately after the final whistle was blown. However, quick intervention by MHL technical officials prevented an ugly scene.

Former champions RMR started off well in the match by taking the lead through Zaini Sarip off a penalty corner deflection in the sixth minute. But Telekom came back strongly and took a 3-1 lead in the space of eight minutes.


CLOSE TUSSLE: Former national skipper Mirnawan Nawawi of Telekom Malaysia (left) vies for the ball with RMR's Hong Kong international Arif Ali during their Malaysia Hockey League match at the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium yesterday. Telekom won 5-3. – STARpic by IBRAHIM MOHTAR
Telekom's Indian national defender Len Aiyappa, who missed the first penalty corner in the 12th minute, scored two penalty corner goals with his low flicks in the 16th and 19th minutes.

Another Indian player Dhanraj Pillay made it 3-1 from close range in the 24th minute.

After the breather, Telekom kept up the pressure and Dhanraj was on target again to score his second and the team's fourth goal in the 44th minute.

However, despite being three goals down, the fitter RMR players narrowed the deficit when they scored twice in 10 minutes through Arif Ali in the 47th minute and Maswadi Shahruddin in the 57th minute.

RMR were all fired up to get the equaliser when umpire Borhan sent off Mohd Azahari for hitting Telekom's Mohd Nor Affazly with his stick. The situation got worse when Borhan disallowed RMR’s goal in the 65th minute.

However, three minutes later, Len scored off his fourth penalty corner goal to give Telekom a hard-fought victory.

RMR stand-in manager Kaptain Zambari Abdul Khorid expressed frustration over the poor umpiring.

“We were surprised with the disallowed goal. It was a clean goal. This is not the first time the umpire had made a wrong decision. In our two matches against Tenaga Nasional and Maybank the same umpire made bad calls as well,” said Zambari.

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