New Zealand does need to depend solely on penalty corner ace marksman Hayden Shaw in order to win matches and this was made clear in their match against Scotland.
The Black Sticks hammered Scotland 8-0 to register their second win in as many matches, after having beaten Wales 6-2 in the opening match on Saturday.
And the hero of the team was Nicholas Wilson, who was a member of the New Zealand Junior World Cup team in Johor Baru four months ago. The 19 year old came off the bench to score four goals in the space of 12 minutes.
Shaw is still recovering from pneumonia and has yet to take the field in the tournament. But he is expected to be named in the 16 for the match against Malaysia on Tuesday.
But Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod felt that Shaw could be kept out until the end of the week when the final is played with the winner take all, i.e the sole ticket to the World Cup in New Delhi next year.
“We are playing well and I am pleased with the youngsters as they have improved as the tournament progresses,” said McLeod.
“5t was a tradesman kind of performance with clinical finishing. The seniors in the team have done well to keep the structure. But there is still the case of creating penalty corners.
“It is good to score seven field goals, but this will not be possible in tight matches and this is an area we need to work on, especially against Malaysia whom we play Tuesday.”
The Black Sticks opened scoring in the 16th minute through Hugo Inglis who muffed the initial chance when put through for a one to one situation with Scottish keeper James Cachia but picked up the rebound to slot home.
Simon Child played a neat 1-2 with Arun Panchia before slotting home in the 26th minute to put New Zealand 2-0 up. And two minutes before the breather, skipper Phillip Burrows had the simplest of tasks to slot home after a fine run down the left by Hugo.
The second half turned out to be a personal performance of Nicholas who scored in the 48th, 49th, 58th and 60th minutes with Simon scoring the Kiwis fourth goal in the 46th minute.
In the other match, China did just enough to register a 2-1 win over Austria and kept in touch with table toppers New Zealand.
