Kuantan: The Indian junior men’s hockey team qualified for the semi – finals of 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup after defeating Oman 9 -0 in the quarterfinals of the 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup on Thursday.
India will now face Japan in the first semi – final to be played on November 21.
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.
“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,” said Harendra Singh, Coach, Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team.
Harmanpreet’s hat-trick in the match take his tally of goals to 9 in the tournament making him highest scorer for India.
The 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup is being played from the 14th – 22nd November 2015 at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium in Kuantan, Malaysia. One of the elite Asian tournaments, the 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup has the top eight Asian hockey powerhouses playing for supremacy.
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