New Zealand were set to face their nemesis, Pakistan, last night in the bronze medal match at the 14th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
Having to play the Pakistanis was a huge surprise for the New Zealand camp.
After their 6-4 loss to the Koreans in their
last pool match on Thursday, Black Sticks coach Kevin Towns was certain they would meet the Koreans again in the play-off for third and planned tactics accordingly.
But a series of upsets in the last round of pool play on Friday upset their pre-match planning.
In scoring a goal two minutes from time to beat South Africa 3-2 in the first game of the last of the round-robins, Korea put themselves in gold medal contention.
Australia then needed to beat India to go to the top of the table, which they achieved with the only goal of the match six minutes from time.
That left Pakistan needing a draw against Malaysia to join Australia in the final. But, in the upset of the tournament, the hosts scored from their only penalty corner of the match to beat Pakistan, who had seven penalty corners, 1-0.
"The Pakistanis were far from happy at that," said New Zealand manager Kevin Marr.
Having been beaten 2-1 by Pakistan in the tournament opener, New Zealand decided to make a couple of changes for last night's match.
Towns preferred Kyle Pontifex ahead of Paul Woolford in goal and left defender Brad Shaw, along with Woolford, out of the squad.
The starting XI was Pontifex, Dean Couzins, Richard Petherick, Shea McAleese, Simon Towns, Blair Hopping, Ryan Archibald, Darren Smith, Gareth Brooks, Phil Burrows and Bevan Hari.
With the emphasis on rotating his front-runners, Towns opted for James Nation, Shaun Barnett, Bryce Collins, Dave Kosoof and Hamish Baron on his bench.
Australia were due to play Korea in the final early today.
