Black Sticks beat down Malaysia by 4-2 in their third encounter: Hockey Recap
New Zealand junior men pounded the Malaysians by a 4-2 today, June 6, in their third encounter of the series that was commenced at the Alexander McMillan Hockey Centre located at Logan Park, in Dunedin, New Zealand. The series began on June 2, and concluded
on June 7.
Like the last two matches, Black Sticks junior team opened up the scores in the opening minutes of the match. The stand-out of the last matches, Abir Mukherjee was yet again on the front foot to seal a lead score for his team in the penalty corner awarded
to Black Sticks.
They dominated the first quarter of the match with many potential scoring chances. However, the team could not add in another point on the score-board.
In the 21st minute mark, the penalty-corner specialist received a pass from outside the circle by Nick Ross that was excellently stuck into the net, advancing the team’s lead to 2-0 with his second goal of the game.
It almost seemed as a solitary game, until when Malaysia came into action and Mohamed Ramadhan scored a goal in the closing minute of the first half with the help of a penalty-corner. The match went into half-time with scores at 2-1.
New Zealand juniors always presented their weaker side during the second halves of their encounters. Same kind of performance was seen in this match too, which allowed the Malaysian to match up the scores with an equaliser in the 44th minute. It
was an easy tap into the net that was done by Amir Farid, locking the scores at 2-2.
From here onwards, the host side began to commit mistakes in terms of passes and goal attempts and the tables seemed to be turning in favour of the Malaysian side.
However, the Black Sticks came back in form in the last ten minutes of the play and started putting pressure over their opponents. As a result, they took the lead in the 62nd minute when Mukherjee scored his hat-trick goal of the game.
It was amazing to find Black Sticks taking back the control of the game and pacing up with a stronger defensive side.
Malaysia pushed hard to meet up the pace of the game, but New Zealand stood firm defending well in the last five minutes of the play.
At the end, the Black Stick junior team was awarded a penalty corner award in the closing minute of the match, which was taken up by Dwayne Rowsell, who converted the corner with another addition to their score-line at 4-2. The match concluded with the host
team overpowering Malaysia in the series by 2-0, with one draw.
The next match is to be played tomorrow, June 7, at the same venue.
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