Favourite Malaysia lived up to the top billing to emerged as the champions of Hockey World League Round-2 beating China 5-3 in the shootout of the final held at the Moulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium on Sunday.
But title aspirants Malaysia had to sweat hard as China forced them the match to end at end in a 2-2 draw forcing the final result decided on the shootout. The champions came back from a two goal deficit to salvage the championship in a tie breaker.
Du Talake, the energetic Chinese goal scorer put his team ahead in the 15th minute off a penalty corner that was completed after stipulated time.
In the 22nd minute, a quick counter attack, led by Ao Yang ran amok in the Malaysian defense and Su Jun made no mistake to slot it home. To add salt to Malaysian wound, Jazlan Nazmi failed to convert from a penalty corner in the 24th minute.
Cheng Ming, the Chinese goalkeeper was in an outstanding form frustrating the Malaysians throughout the first two quarters.
However Malaysian broke the barren account in the 47th minute when Shahril Sabaah scored off the 11th penalty corner and initiating the fight back.
In the 55th minute Jazlan Nazmi made amendment of his penalty failure scoring the equalizer.
In the shootout all five Malaysian shooters scored while China added three.
