India opened their campaign in the Asian Champions Trophy 2018 with a stellar 11-0 win over hosts Oman on Thursday. The win was step up a remarkable hat-trick by young Dilpreet Singh.
Barring the first quarter in which no goal was scored, there was no stopping India and Dilpreet. India were expected to dominate Oman but were held to a goalless first quarter.
It was a different story as soon as the second quarter began. India came out all guns blazing after the break, and took 28 shots at Oman’s goal. India also scored five goals from eight penalty corners.
India took the lead in the 17th minute through Lalit Upadhyay and continued scoring goals at regular intervals. Dilpreet also made up for his missed chances in the first quarter with a hat-trick, scoring goals in the 41st, 55th and 57th minute.
Harmanpreet Singh scored in the 21st minute and a minute later, Nilakanta Sharma took India’s lead to 3-0. Mandeep Singh (29’), Gurjant Singh (37’), Akashdeep Singh (49’), Varun Kumar (49’) and Chinglensana Singh (53’) were the other goal scorers for India.
Oman struggled throughout the match against world number five side and managed to enter India’s circle only three times. They failed to create any penalty corners as well.
India’s next match will be against arch-rivals Pakistan, to be played on Saturday.