India thrash lowly Oman 9-1 in one-sided encounter
TNN

NEW DELHI: The result was a foregone conclusion. It was not about who would win, but about what the margin of victory would be.

Major Dhyanchand National stadium on Wednesday witnessed yet another mismatch when Indian men recorded their second win of the Hero Hockey World League – this time against Oman. The margin was 9-1. It followed India’s 16-0 thrashing of Fiji on Monday.

From Oman’s perspective, the number of goals conceded would not have bothered them much. They would have been happy to get the chance to play against some of the top players in the world and learn from them. Oman are ranked No. 40 in the world.

The match was so one-sided that one would not have been surprised had goalkeeper PR Sreejesh taken a coffee break during the game. He spent most of the 70 minutes watching the action on the other half of the field.

The only time he was tested was when Oman earned a penalty corner and scored towards the end of the first half through Mohamed Hubais.

That the rushing Indian defenders did not stop the grounded shot, like they did a little while ago during Oman’s first penalty corner, surprised many. Perhaps it surprised Sreejesh too.

India could have easily scored another half a dozen more, but they did not go all out. VR Raghunath, Rupinder Pal Singh, Nithin Thimmaiah scored two goals each with Dharamvir Singh, Mandeep Singh and Gurjinder Singh scoring one each.

Bangladesh earlier stunned a higher-ranked China 3-2 while Ireland defeated Fiji 13-0.