Guangzhou:
India's dream of winning a gold in men's hockey event at the Asian Games came a cropper after lower-ranked Malaysia stunned the Commonwealth Games silver medallist with a 75th minute golden goal from Muhammad Amin Rahim in the second semifinal on Tuesday.
The decisive punch in India's 3-4 defeat was provided by Malaysian penalty corner specialist Amin Rahim in the fifth minute of extra time after he had brought the South East Asian country on level terms three minutes from the end of regular time with another drag-flick that completely beat Bharat Chetri under the Indian bar.
Malaysia, ranked 15th in the world, came out on top in the additional time after both sides were tied 3-3 at the end of regulation time to make their maiden appearance in the Asian Games summit clash, where they face Pakistan, who knocked out defending champions South Korea in penalty shoot-out in the first semifinal.
India will now be up against South Korea in the bronze medal play-off match.
By virtue of this victory, Malaysia has broken their Asian Games losing streak against India, against whom they lost in all 10 previous meetings in the mega-event.
Penalty corner conversion turned out to be the difference between the two sides as Malaysia converted three out of the four short corners they earned in the match, while the Indians could utilise only two out of four.
The Indians were also done in by some sloppy defending inside the circle, which resulted in all the penalty corners for Malaysia.
Coming into the match with an unbeaten record, a lot was expected of India, but they cut a sorry figure against a determined Malaysian outfit who were by far the better side on display.
India, who missed their penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh due to a neck injury for 20 minutes in the second half, were down by a brilliant 32nd minute field goal scored by forward Abdul Jalil Tengku.
However, Malaysia's joy was shortlived as Sandeep equalised three minutes later with a powerful dragflick as both teams went into the breather locked at 1-1.
The Indians came out with purpose after the change of ends and surged ahead in the 37th minute through Tushar Khandkar's field strike.
India then displayed controlled hockey for nearly 12 minutes before Azlan Misron (49th) drew the scores level with a well worked-out variation from Malaysia's third short corner.
Five minutes later, captain Rajpal Singh made it 3-2 for India with a rebound after Dhananjay Mahadik's initial flick from a set piece was stopped by Malaysia custodian Kumar Subramiam.
But it was not to be India's day as Malaysia earned another penalty corner in the dying stages of the match from which Amin Rahim (67th) scored to make it 3-3.
With little more than a minute to go for the hooter, India got a golden chance to seal the match in their favour but coach Jose Brasa's boys wasted their fourth penalty corner to take the encounter into extra time.
Pressure got the better of the Indians in the additional time as they gave away another short corner in the 75th minute from which Amin Rahim scored yet again, to avenge Malaysia's 2-3 defeat against India in last month's Commonwealth Games.
India will now play South Korea for bronze while Malaysia will be up against Pakistan in the gold medal match, the winners of which would directly qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.
In the first semifinal earlier in the day, Pakistan got the better of Korea 4-3 in penalty shoot-out after both sides were locked 1-1 at the end of regulation as well as 15 minutes of extra time.
Incidentally, this will be seven-time champions Pakistan's first entry into the Asian Games final after a hiatus of 20 years when they won the gold at Beijing in 1990.
India captain Rajpal blamed his side's missed opportunities for the loss and said the team missed Sandeep at vital stages of the match.
"If we had converted 50 per cent of the chances we got we would have won the match. Their goalkeeper also played well and once a defender also made a goal-line save off a penalty corner. Then Sandeep Singh was absent and had he been present we would have had better chances to convert the last-minute penalty corner," he said.
Coach Jose Brasa, whose contract ends after the Asian Games, said he was "very angry and disappointed" with the result.
He also praised Malaysian custodian Kumar Subramiam for denying the Indians a couple of times in the second half.
"Their goalkeeper played very well and brought off some good saves in the second half. And on one instance their defender also stopped the ball on the line. This was one of the important moments of the match. We did not control the game when we needed to control it," the Spaniard said.
Brasa predicted difficult future for India in the forthcoming London Games qualifying tournaments.
"Our main target was to win the gold here and qualify and we have not done so. I see difficult times ahead for the team to qualify," he said.
Brasa was also quite candid about his future with the team.
"I don't think the government would retain me after these Games," he said, adding it was not the right time to answer the question whether he would accept the job if offered to him again.