Connect with us

Sports

Indian hockey juniors floor Oman 9-0, enter Asia Cup semis

Published

on

Kuantan (Malaysia): India fired six first half goals to crush lower ranked Oman 9-0 and enter the semi-finals of the 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament here on Thursday.

Harmanpreet Singh scored a hat-trick as India made the quarter-final a one-sided contest in the first half at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium. They will face Japan in the first semi-final on Saturday.

The difference in physical and technical proficiency between India and Oman was evident from the beginning as the latter charged ahead undeterred.

Harmanpreet converted a penalty stroke in the seventh minute to make it 1-0.

Armaan Qureshi doubled India’s lead with a field goal three minutes later before Harmanpreet converted a penalty corner to make it 3-0.

Gurjant Singh added the fourth goal in the 18th minute and four minutes later, Santa Singh made it 5-0 as the Oman defence lacked the ammunition to defend.

It took another eight minutes for Mandeep Singh to score India’s sixth goal as the first half ended.

India’s domination continued in the second half as well even though the flow of goals slowed down.

Captain and midfielder Harjeet Singh made it 7-0 in the 45th minute.

Harmanpreet completed his hat-trick with a perfectly executed penalty corner. He now has nine goals in the eight-nation tournament.

The last nail in the Oman coffin was a field goal by Mohammad Umar in the 54th minute, ensuring a comfortable win for India.

“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,” India chief coach Harendra Singh said in a release.

“We are taking one step at a time and our energies are now just focussed on converting the semi-final encounter to our favour.”

Home

Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia

Published

on

The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.

Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.

Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”

Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.

Continue Reading

Trending