KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Ireland’s lethal striker Anna O’Flanagan seems very much at home when playing in Malaysia as she continues to increase her goal tally in the ongoing Women’s Hockey World League (WHWL) Round Two, to seven.

The 26-year-old law graduate’s main reason for scoring is to help the Ireland emerge as the champion in the WHWL en route to earning a place in the 2018 World Cup qualifier.

She is the current leading scorer in the tournament with seven goals from three group matches and most importantly all seven goals scored were field goals, underlining her ability to skillfully beat defenders.

Italian Valentina Braconi is hot on her heels with six goals while O’Flanagan’s team mate Nicola Evans, Malaysians Nuraini Abdul Rashid and Fatin Shafika Mahd Sukri have four goals each under their belt.

"Off course I want to score more goals but the main aim for me is that our team wins each and every game because we came here to win the tournament and that means a lot for us.

"Yes I practiced a lot on techniques to score goals,” she told Bernama at the sidelines of the WHWL at the Tun Razak Hockey Stadium, here.

O’Flanagan, who started playing hockey at the tender age of eight, scored four goals while helping the Irish team whip Kazakhstan 12-0 in a Group B match on Saturday and scored one goal during the 2-1 win against Malaysia on Monday and a brace when whipping Hong Kong 10-0 yesterday.

Since making her debut in the Ireland senior squad in 2010, she has scored more than 50 goals and earned more than 120 caps.

Her scoring spree is important for the world number 16 to book a berth in the 2018 London World Cup since the last time Ireland had featured in the world cup was back in 2002 when it was held in Perth, Australia.

With only two top finishers at the Kuala Lumpur WHWL Round Two getting an automatic berth into the WHWL Semifinals to be played over two editions, Ireland now face a tough challenge from two other favourites, Italy and host Malaysia.

The win against Malaysia in a Group B match on Monday, gave O’Flanagan and her team an easy path in the knockout phase, since they would face minnows Singapore in quarterfinals tomorrow and expected to play either Wales or Kazakhstan in the semifinals on Saturday.

If the Irish side, coached by Graham Shaw, moves into the final, they would face a real challenge, probably against world number 15 Italy or Malaysia on Sunday. — Bernama