Razie dazzles as Malaysia whip South Africa in 2nd men’s Hockey World League Round 3 event

Faizal Saari of Malaysia

Malaysia dished out exhilarating hockey to outplay South Africa 6-4 to leapfrog to the top of Pool B in the second FIH Hockey World League Round 3 tournament being played in Johor Bahru.

The Paul Revington-coached Malaysians kickstarted proceedings in a whirlwind manner with livewire striker Faizal Saari unleashing a powerful penalty corner goal.

South African nearly equalized through captain Austin Smith, but Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subramiam pulled off a superb penalty corner save.

The home side went up 2-0 in the 15^th minute when Muhammad Razie Abd Rahim whipped home a penalty corner goal, beating the South African keeper all ends up.

South Africa reduced the deficit nine minutes later through a fierce short corner strike by Jethro Eustace.

Wade Paton made it 2-2 for South Africa early in the second half before Malaysia regained the lead through another penalty corner goal by Muhammad Razie Abd Rahim – his fourth goal of the tournament.

The match rose to new heights as Faizal Saari struck another before Miguel da Graca rattled the Malaysian cage to make the scoreline 3-4.

Faizal’s brother Mohd Fitri Saari also got into the act, scoring the fifth goal for South Africa.

Muhammad Marhan Mohd Jalil made it 6-3 in the 63^rd minute.

South Africa found a consolation goal through Timothy Drummond in the 69th minute, but the black-and-yellow brigade were the deserving winners.

Earlier, Pakistan played yet another drawn game – playing out a 2-2 draw with England.

Oliver Willars gave England the lead in the 13th minute, but Pakistan evened things through captain Muhammad Imran.

England regained the lead through Adam Dixon and led 1-2 at the break.

Pakistan once again restored parity in the 50th minute through Abdul Haseem Khan and that’s how the match ended.

2012 Olympic Gold medallists Germany recovered from their 1-1 draw with Argentina and smacked Korea 5-0.

Talented Christopher Ruehr scored a brace, while Moritz Fürste and Christopher Zeller scored short corner goals once along with an own goal by Korea.

In another game, Argentina clobbered Japan 7-1.

Facundo Callioni scored twice for the South Americans, while Guillermo Schickendantz, Gonzalo Peillat, Matias Paredes, Luca Vila and Agustin Mazzilli netted once for the winners.

Katsuyoshi Nagasawa scored the lone goal for Japan.