India played their heart out and thrashed Malaysia 6-1 to set up the summit clash with Australia. Nikkin Thimmaiah opened the scoring in the 3rd minute after SV Sunil penetrated the circle with an intelligent run and delivered a neat cross onto the forward's stick.
As the home side struggled to manage possession, the Indians struck again in the 7th minute. The 20-year-old Harjeet Singh, this time, scoring his memorable first goal in national colours.
It was a defiant dart into the circle by young Harjeet before he found the bottom corner from a straight angle to make it 2-0 for India.
Two minutes later, the in-form Sunil had an attempt blocked by the foot of the Malaysian goalkeeper Mohammad Hairi. Rashid Baharom then nudged into Manpreet's back in the 13th minute for India's first penalty corner which went wide, off the woodwork.
2-0 up at the end of the first quarter
India kept their foot on the gas as we went into the second fifteen minutes of the game.
As the Malaysians' first penalty corner was narrowly deflected past the left goalpost in the 22nd minute, the Indians upped the ante with a flurry of relentless charges into the opponents' area. Soon enough, Ramandeep Singh found the net to make it 3-0 for India, after a comedy of errors from a penalty corner in the 25th minute.
Harmanpreet's drag-flick, then, hit the crossbar and fell to Danish Mujtaba on the rebound, who fired it in to take India 4-0 ahead in the 27th minute.
Gap further widened in second half
As the second half got underway, the Malaysians were visibly down and out as nothing was going right for their side. The gap was further widened in the 39th minute when Harmanpreet's long pass travelled unhindered through the Malaysian defence onto Ramandeep's stick who made it 5-0 with his second of the match.
In the 1st minute of the final quarter, Shahril Saabah pulled off an exquisite finish to salvage some consolation for the home side. There was, however, no relief for the Malaysian side as Talwinder Singh made it 6-1 in the 50th minute from a close-range blinder.
The final hooter went off with the scoreboard reading 6-1 in favour of India. A brilliant show by the Men in Blue, this will provide some much-needed encouragement before the final match against World No.1 Australia.
