Asian Champions Trophy: India starts with a massive win in defence of its title
Asian Champions Trophy: India starts with a massive win in defence of its title India mauled the hosts Oman 11-0 to launch its campaign in defence of its title in the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament in Muscat on Thursday. Earlier, Malaysia took a sweet revenge of the Asian games gold medal loss to Japan by wrapping up the opening game of the tournament with an impressive 3-0 win. Also Read: Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup: Asian Games champion suffer Korea suffers humiliating defeat India equalled its previous highest tally of 11-0 against Oman recorded in the 2012 edition of the Asian Champions Trophy. Young Dilpreet Singh, who was named man of the match, accounted for the sixth, 10th and 11th goals for his team. It was the seventh encounter between India and Oman. India has won all seven. After a barren first quarter, Indian team came back strongly in the second quarter to score four goals, including a penalty corner goal by Harmanpreet Singh, in the 22nd minute. In all, India got four of its goals through direct or indirect conversions of penalty corners. These included goals by Varun Kumar, Dilpreet Singh and Kangujam Chinglesana. It was Lalit Upadhyay who put India ahead in the 17th minute with a nice field goal followed by penalty corner conversion by Harmanpreet. Before the teams broke for the interval, Nilakanta Sharma ( 23rd minute) and Mandeep Singh (30th minute) added to the tally. Also Read: Asian Games 2018: Manika Batra And Sharath Kamal Settle For Historic Bronze In the third quarter, Gurjant Singh (field goal in the 37th minute) and Dilpreet singh (penalty corner rebound, 42nd minute) kept the scoring board moving for India. It was in the fourth and last quarter that got India five goals, including a brace by Dilpreet Singh (55th and 57th minute) besides indirect penalty corner conversion by Chinglesana and direct penalty corner goal by Varun Kumar. Akashdeep Singh got his first goal of the tournament in the 49th minute). Earlier, two goals by Faisal Sara ( one of a penalty corner in the third minute and second of a penalty stroke in the 51st minute) helped Malaysia to record a shock 3-0 win over Asian Games champions Japan in the opener of the tournament. The third goal for Malaysia was scored by Tengku Tajuddin that also came from an indirect penalty corner conversion in the 9th minute). -PTC NEWS
