Asian Champions Trophy 2018: India begin tournament with resounding 11-0 win over Oman

Asian Games bronze medallists India began the Hero Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament with a resounding win over hosts Oman played at Muscat, Oman on Friday. It was a powerful performance by the Indian team, who dominated the entire game.

In the first quarter, the Indian team could not play their attacking style of hockey, as the Oman defence and attack played with aggressive intent. The Indians had more chances but could not convert them into goals. The scores remained 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Indian team got off to a perfect start in the second quarter as Manpreet Singh gave the assist and Lalit Upadhyay scored the first goal in the 17th minute. Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 21st minute to give India a 2-0 lead. In the next minute, Nilkanta Sharma scored a brilliant field goal to make it 3-0 in favour of India. Mandeep Singh hit a brilliant shot to give India a 4-0 lead at the end of the first half.

The third quarter also began well for team India, with Gurjant Singh scoring a great field goal in the 37th minute to increase the lead. India earned a penalty corner and a superb shot by Dilpreet Singh in 41st minute gave India a commanding 6-0 lead at end of third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Indians attacked more and more. Akashdeep Singh scored another brilliant field goal to continue increasing their lead to 7-0. Varun Kumar and Chinglensana also got on the scoresheet, while Harmanpreet scored another. Dilpreet completed his hat-trick, completing a 11-0 scoreline at full-time.

India will play their next match of the tournament against arch rivals Pakistan on 20th October.