Nasihin Nubli
Nasihin Nubli

The "dream finish" is to crash into the Asia Cup semi-finals, but realistically, Nasihin Nubli's women are good for another fifth placing in Muscat, Oman.

Malaysia, who have a collection of fifth placing from 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2017, hope to move up a notch in Muscat.

But that means either beating India (ninth in the world) or Japan (14th) while the Singapore match will surely provide three points from Group A for 20th ranked Malaysia.

However pulling off an upset against India, the semi-finalists at last year's Tokyo Olympics, is an almost impossible task as Nasihin will be relying on 16 players with zero caps in Muscat.

The 16 women facing Asia Cup favourites India in their first international debut, can go down in a blaze of glory against a team parading 16 Tokyo Olympians.

However, Malaysian women have not done badly against India in the past, and in the three 2019 Test matches, the team's composition was much more mature and the matches ended with 1-0 and 1-0 wins for India and a 4-4 draw.

And at the last competitive match played, at the 2018 Donghae Asian Champions Trophy, India could only beat Malaysia 3-2.

But these past results will count for little when Nasihin's 16 untested players go up against 16 Olympians.

India skipper Savita Punia told Hockey India: "Our main focus will always be on ourselves. We have seen videos of recent matches of Malaysia Japan, South Korea, China, and other teams, and we have prepared for them. But every team has their strengths and weaknesses and hence, we aim to focus on ourselves."

India only have themselves to worry about, but Malaysia need to worry about every team in the tournament if they want the fifth consecutive fifth spot in Muscat.

FIXTURES (Malaysian time): Friday — Malaysia v India (12 midnight); Sunday: Malaysia v Singapore (9pm); Monday: Malaysia v Japan (9pm).