BHUBANESWAR: Shahmie Irfan Suhaimi, 20, scored the winner in a tense 3-2 battle against Japan when the two sides met in a 13-16th classification match at the Hockey World Cup in India today.
It was only Shahmie's fourth match in the World Cup and he seems to be growing with confidence after every game.
Malaysia took the lead at the Birsa Munda Stadium off a Shello Silverius penalty corner rebound in the eighth minute but Japan's Kaito Tanaka equalised in the 24th.
Seren Tanaka then gave the Rising Sun the lead in the 32nd minute but in the same minute Shello acored a field goal to level it 2-2.
And then it was Shahmie's moment under the spotlight as he scored a 34th minute field goal and Malaysia held on to dear life after that.
Shahmie played well at the Sultan of Johor Cup last year and when the senior team was hit by a host of injuries, juniors coach Amin Rahim recommended the lanky lad to be the 20th player for the World Cup.
For this tournament 18 plus two extra players were allowed to be registered. When Shahril Saabah picked up a hamstring injury early in the tournament, Shahmie was shoved to the forefront.
The son of former Olympian Suhaimi Ibrahm, who played at Sydney 2000 and scored two goals, did not disappoint his father as he scored one shoot-out goal against Spain and now a field goal against Japan.
Malaysia's final placing in the World Cup will only be known after Chile-France play their classification match later today.