Men’s Junior Asia Cup hockey: India thrash Thailand 11-0

Muscat: Defending champions India started their men’s junior Asia Cup campaign on a rousing note, thrashing lowly Thailand 11-0 in a lop-sided Pool A match here on Wednesday.

Besides India and Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Japan and South Korea are the other teams in Pool A. Pool B consists of arch-rivals Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, hosts Oman and China.

Araijeet Singh Hundal (2nd minute, 24th), Arshdeep Singh (8th), Gurjot Singh (18th, 45th), Sourabh Anand Kushwaha (19th, 52nd), Dilraj Singh (21st) and Mukesh Toppo (59th) struck from field play for India, while Sharda Nand Tiwari (10th) found the net from a penalty corner. Rohit (29th) converted a penalty stroke for the winners.

India will next take on Japan on Thursday. Firm favourites to lift the title, the Indians made a solid start to the tournament, scoring three goals in the opening quarter. Araijeet started the scoring with a reverse flick on the near side which was later doubled by Arshdeep with an easy conversion on rebound.

Later, Sharda Nand added another goal with a powerful down-the-line drag-flick in the 10th minute. The Indians continued to put pressure on the Thai defence with repeated raids but the opposition goalkeeper Thawin Phomjunt made some brilliant saves to deny the rivals.