The New Zealand men's hockey team has edged India 4-3 in the opening match of the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia on Thursday night.
The Black Sticks started game strongly but India were
awarded their first penalty corner of the match after 12 minutes
which was converted.
A second converted corner six min later saw the Black Sticks down
2-0 but the experienced New Zealand side was unfazed.
They responded in the 21st minute when awarded their only corner of
the match. At the time Hayden Shaw was off the field, but Andy
Hawyward stepped up to convert the corner.
Just on the stroke of halftime Simon Child deflected home a solid
field goal to equalise 2-2.
India had some good opportunities in the opening minutes of the
first half before the Black Sticks started to dominate.
Phil Burrows scored from classic reverse stick strike about 10
minutes into the half and then Casey Henwood put a neat pass
through to Gareth Brooks to score for a 4-2 lead.
India then drew the score back to 4-2 by converting their third
corner from three attempts. The Indians then threw everything at
New Zealand for the remainder of the match but the Black
Sticks ran clock down efficiently and hit the post with one
further scoring attempt.
Manager Kevin Marr said the side was pretty pleased with the all
round performance, given the absence of the injured Ryan
Archiblad.
"Dave Kosoof has also been off colour for a couple of days and but
we had to play him, as we did Lloyd Stephenson who had just arrived
to cover for Ryan - a good start for us in tournament," he
said.
The Black Sticks play Pakistan tonight at 10pm NZ time.
