The Hindu : Sport : India, Oman off to winning starts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

India, Oman off to winning starts

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 8. Host India and Oman recorded contrasting wins on the opening day of the ninth Asian handball championship for junior men at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy indoor stadium at Yousufguda here on Wednesday.

Predictably, India made shortwork of first-timers Bangladesh to record the most convincing win of the day, beating it 50-30 while Oman struggled to down a fighting Chinese Taipei 32-29 in another first round match.

For the home team, a win was only to be expected, as Bangladesh was obviously the weakest side in the fray for the event. What was pleasing, from chief coach Vikramjit Singh's view point, was that it managed to romp home in style. The speed and alacrity of Sanjay Kumar (14) and J.N. Prasad (9) was too much for the hapless Bangladeshis, who paid the penalty for committing too many fouls on top of the penalty zone.

On the other hand, the Indians put up a sterling show, with the goalkeeper Khan Faisal doing a decent job. The passes were precise and their task was made easier by the poor performance of the rival defence.

Perhaps the solitary positive for the loser was that it restricted India to a slender 27-20 lead at half-time.

But for the efficacy of Faruq Ahmad and Hossien Bulbul, there was little to rave about the Bangladesh performance.

Quite strangely, a better-rated Oman, egged on by its Czech coach, Katushak Stevan, recovered in time to record a narrow win. With the trio of Al Mashari Jamil Khamis, Khamis Yahya and Al Dughaish Imad Saif working in tandem, the Chinese Taipei defence was severely tested in the first half. But to its delight, the speedy Yen Kuo-Sung (5) and Kuo Tsung-Hsin (3) showed some enterprise in launching a series of counter-attacks.

At half-time, the teams were tied 16-all. In fact, Oman led for the first time only late into the second session. Chen Yu Liang (6) was Chinese Taipei's hero in the second half with some wonderful acrobatic efforts. His felicity in relaying those under-arm passes only to regain the ball in the nick of time to score freely clearly rattled the Omanese.

But Khamis Yahya and Almshari struck when it mattered after the scores were tied at 29-all to clinch the issue for Oman.

In another match, defending champion Kuwait scored a hard-fought 26-23 win over Japan, with Al Khalaf Mahdi (11), Al Oraifan Dhari (4), Al Balushi Abdulla and Al Shhamari Yousuf (three goals each) being the main scorers. For the loser, Kaido Morihide and Ogawa Yuya with five goals each were the key performers.

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