Bangladesh, Thailand record contrasting wins

Sports Sunday 11/March/2018 21:58 PM
By: Times News Service
Bangladesh, Thailand record contrasting wins

Muscat: After overcoming an early jolt, Bangladesh routed Hong Kong 5-1 for their second successive victory in the 2018 Asian Games Hockey Qualifier at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Sunday.
In a Pool A match, Bangladesh, who are favourites to clinch one of the five qualifying places, were stunned by a 15th minute short corner conversion by Felix Chi Him Iu of Hong Kong.
After taking the lead, Hong Kong stayed solid in defence, denying Bangladesh forwards space to operate freely. Try as they did Bangladesh could not break the defence of Hong Kong for the rest of the first quarter and the entire second quarters.
However, three minutes after the half-time the Bangladeshis were awarded a penalty stroke which Ashraful Islam converted with ease.
That goal opened the floodgates as Bangladesh went on to score four more starting with Ashraful’s second off a 35th minute penalty corner.
Another short corner conversion by Roman Sarkar in the 47th minute made it 3-1 in favour of Bangaldesh.
Rashad Mahmud made 4-1 with a 58th minute field goal before Milon Hossain completed the tally with another fine field goal just before the final hooter.
In another Pool A match, Thailand thrashed Afghanistan 23-0 for their first win of the tournament with Thanop Kampanthong scoring as many as eight goals.
The Afghans had also lost their opening match by a 19-1 margin to Hong Kong.
Bangladesh now top the group with six points followed by Thailand and Hong Kong with three points each.
Bangladesh play their next match against Afghanistan on Tuesday when Thailand square off against Hong Kong.
Pool B action resumes on Monday when group toppers Oman tackle lowly Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei take on Sri Lanka.
Praise for Oman
Meanwhile, Sheikh Rashad bin Ahmed Al Hinai, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Sports Affairs, met the members of Oman hockey team in the presence of Oman Hockey Association chairman Talib bin Khamis Al Wahaibi and other board members.
During his interaction with the team, Al Hinai praised the OHA for their sincere efforts in conducting the tournament and expressed his delight over Oman’s qualification for the Asian Games.
The OHA is scheduled to conduct the draw of the 2018 OHA Junior League at Golden Tulip on Monday.
This year’s tournament has attracted eight teams - Al Nasr, Al Salam, Sohar, Dhofar, Nizwa, Quriyat, Salalah, Ahli-Sidab and Seeb. The tournament will start on March 20.
Meanwhile, OHA chief Talib Al Wahaibi officially inaugurated a umpires course on Sunday. The three-day course, will see participation of 19 referees.