Aussie win Azlan Shah Cup; India retain third position

IPOH, Malaysia, May 13 (UNI) Australia won their fifth Sultan Azlan Shah Cup when they defeated Malaysia 3-1 in the final here today.

Two goals by young forward Edward Ockenden in the 39th and 41st minutes gave them an edge in the closely-fought encounter. Russel Ford then added the third in the 53rd minutes.

The Malaysians who had been defensive throughout the match found a consolation goal in the 70th minute through Jiwa Mohan.

Earlier, Sardar Singh's first goal for his country helped a resurgent and new-look India retain their third spot by edging past Asian Games champions South Korea 1-0.

In the play off match, both India and South Korea were well short of their standards, and a second half strike by Sardar Singh, his first at the senior level, was enough to give them a podium finish.

India coach Joaquim Carvalho said he was happy to have retained the third place although he admitted his wards did not play that well.

''We missed numerous chances and the players were not in the mood after the semi-final defeat. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and as I have said earlier we cannot expect over night results,'' he said.

''This has been good start for us and I have had this team for only a month now. So give us time. We have more good matches coming and we will get stronger because of that,'' he said.

Both teams changed their keepers for the game for the first time in the tournament. Bharat Kumar took over from Baljit Singh while the Koreans preferred Lee Myung-ho over Ko Dong-sik.

For India Vikram Kanth also did not start as they used Gurbaz Singh in the midfield. The Indians were the more dominant side in the first half as they had a lot of chances to get the goals.

But once again all their hard work in getting the ball in to the Korean box was wasted by poor finishing. Rajpal Singh also played a bit deeper and was playing more as feeder rather than going forward himself.

India also had three penalty corners in the seventh, 17th and 31st minutes but they were of no avail.

The second half was still a tale of missed chances but only this time there was greater effort by the Koreans.

A quick counter attack in the 55th minute allowed the Indians to snatch the winner. It was through Roshnan Minz effort when he dribbled past three Korean defender and then relayed the pass to Sardar Singh at the top D.

Sardar's hefty hit sailed past goalkeeper Lee Myung-ho and turned out to be the winner.

The Koreans had three penalty corners and each time Indian goalkeeper Bharat Kumar managed to palm them away.

The Indians managed to keep the Koreans at bay to walk off winners.

Teams: INDIA: Bharat Kumar, Harpal Singh, Rajpal Singh, Prabodh Tirkey, V.

Raghunath, Bimal Lakra, William Xalxo, Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Tushar Khandkar, Prabhjot Singh.

Reserves: Vikram Kanth, Shivender Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Bharat Chikkara, Roshnan Minz.

SOUTH KOREA: Lee Myung-ho, Hong Sung-kweon, Kim Chul, You Hyo-sik, Lee Seung-il, Hong Eun-seong, Yoon Sung-hoon, Lee Sung-min, Lee Jae-won, Kang Moon-kweon, Jeong Yun-sang. Reserves: Ko Dong-sik, Kim Jong,hoon, Kang Moon-kyu, Cho Suk-hoon, Nam hyun-woo.

UNI