JAKARTA, Aug 30 — The men’s national hockey team have advanced to the finals of the event at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games after beating defending champions India 7-6 in a penalty shootout during the semi-final match at the Gelora Bung Karno Hockey Stadium here tonight.

Repeating the feat they achieved in the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China, however, did not come easy, as they fought until the end of the game to make it 2-2, forcing a penalty shootout.

Malaysia, which is targeting a gold medal to book an automatic berth to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics 2020, began the match well, taking apart the Indian defence with ease.

Stephen Van Huizen’s men managed to put the ball into the net in the fifth minute, however, the penalty corner by Muhammad Firhan Ashari was ruled out after the ball had hit the foot of another player.

India opened the score through a penalty corner by Harmanpreet Singh in the 32nd minute before national player Faizal Saari fired in a field goal in the 39th minute to equalise.

However, India went ahead just a minute later through Varun Kumar’s penalty corner and as victory looked imminent for India, Muhammad Razie Abd Rahim emerged the hero, scoring the Speedy Tigers’ second goal in the 59th minute.

In a dramatic penalty shoot-out, Malaysia’s experienced goalkeeper, S. Kumar saved three shots to bring Malaysia one step closer to winning its first gold medal in the event.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Van Huizen said he did not expect the match to be dragged into penalty shootout after devising a strategy to ‘kill’ the match in regular time.

"At first, I did not aim to play until the penalties because we started very well in the first two quarters, but after India scored, I knew the team would not be able to win in regular game time.

"So I told the players to try to score an equaliser and stay up to the penalties. I am very happy, but this is the second time that we go to the final, so we will not celebrate just yet. We will go into the final and try to make history,” he said.

Malaysia is set to face Japan in the final after they beat Pakistan 1-0 in the other semi-final match. — Bernama