India thrash Oman 9-0 to reach semis of Junior Men's Asia Cup

The Indian Junior Men's Hockey Team on Thursday crushed Oman 9 -0 to progress through to the semifinals of 8th Junior Men's Asia Cup.

India started the first half on an attacking note which was rewarded with a penalty stroke in the initial minutes of the game which was clinically converted by Harmanpreet Singh. India continued with their goal fest as Harmanpreet struck again converting a penalty corner 15 minutes into the fisrt half. Oman's defence lacked ammunition to defend the Indian forwards as India fired four more goals to settle the first half score at 6-0 to India's favour. Armaan Qureshi, Gurjant Singh, Santa Singh and Mandeep Singh were the scorers respectively in the first half.

 

India's run into the opposition continued in the second half as well with Harjeet Singh taking India 7-0 up in the first 11 minutes of the second half. A penalty corner there after saw Harmanpreet reaching his first hat- trick in the tournament. The last nail in the coffin was a field goal by Md. Umar ensuring a comfortable win for India in the quarter-final encounter.

Speaking on his side's triumph, coach Harendra Singh said, "The performance against Oman will give us a lot of confidence. A win with such a huge margin will help us come back to the training grounds with a lot of energy and strive for more in the upcoming semi-finals. We are taking one step at a time and our energies are now just focussed on converting the semi-final encounter to our favour."

India will now lock horns with Japan in the first semifinal on 21st November.