SINGAPORE (30 Oct, 2016): China converted two penalty corner goals in the last three minutes of play to win 3-1 over Malaysia Tigress in the 4th Women Asian Champions Trophy at the Sengkang Hockey Stadium in Singapore today.
Norsharina Shabuddin gave the World No 21-ranked Malaysians the early lead with a seventh minute penalty corner goal, surprising their far illustrious opponents from China who are ranked world No 8.
China equalised at the end of the third quarter through Zixia Ou via a penalty corner and as the match was headed into a 1-1 stalemate, China made two quick raids into the Malaysian territory and won penalty corners. Jiagi Zhong scored in the 57th minute and 59th minutes to sink the hearts of K. Dharmaraj’s eves.
The Malaysians had on day one of the five-nation Champions Trophy lost 2-5 against world No 9 Korea. Malaysia Tigress have so far scored three goals and conceded eight in two matches. They play India in the next match on Oct 1 (Tuesday) and Japan on Wednesday.
The Indian women’s hockey team also came back from a goal down to defeat South Korea 2-1 in their second match of the Champions Trophy.
South Korea’s Eesul Baek scored the first goal in the 28th minute but India fought back late to equalise through Rani from a penalty corner in the 47th minute and Deepika scored the winning goal six minutes to the end.
India got off in their campaign with a 2-2 draw against Japan on Saturday. The Indians lead the table standings with four points followed by Korea (3) and China on three points, while Japan has one point and Malaysia none.
The AHF also confirmed that through a recent decision by the International Hockey Federation, Asian Champions Trophy events are included in the continental ranking element of the FIH World Ranking system from the next update.
From that point onwards, the continental rankings for Asia will be calculated across a four-year cycle, taking into account the results of Asian Games, Asia Cup and Asian Champions Trophies held during that time.
Result: China 3 Malaysia 1
