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India lets Oman off the hook
HYDERABAD, SEPT. 12. India put up its best performance so far but a costly lapse of concentration from Mohinder Rawat saw it let Oman get away with a thrilling 32-32 draw in a Group B match in the ninth Asian handball championship for junior men here on Sunday.
It was a performance which delighted the goodly, holiday crowd. With the strategy of shifting the defence formation to 5-1 instead of the regular all six upfront, the Indians looked a much better outfit and matched the speedy Omanese in every department of the game.
The scores were tied on numerous occasions and neither team could manage a two-point lead until late into second session. Southpaw Sanjay Kumar made a huge impact with his imaginative runs down the centre and captain Prasad Jain (12) was the leading scorer. The combination of Prasad, Akthar Aqeel (6) and Ramesh Chand (4) was highly efficient, employing the rotation system on top of the `D' and putting the Omanese defence under intense pressure. But for the consistency of Al Mashari Jamil Khamis (4), Al Jaradi Asim Mubarak (5) and Al Dughaish Mahir Saif (8), Oman would have been trailing by a big margin. The two teams went into the break tied at 16-all.
On resumption, it looked like anybody's game. There was little to separate the two outfits. This also resulted in plenty of rough play, which saw both teams earn quite a few penalty-throws. This was the phase when Rawat was exceptional with his speedy runs and acrobatic passes to the waiting shooters on the edge of the circle. A stroke of luck saw Rawat's feeble effort just roll past a diving goalkeeper to give India a slender 30-29 lead. Soon, Prasad Jain converted a penalty-throw to make it 31-29.
Unfortunately, with a couple of minutes to go, the Indian team was reduced to four as two players were served suspension orders for two minutes each. This was duly capitalised upon by the brilliant southpaw Al Dughaish Mahir Saif, who was all over the Indian defence, scoring two crucial goals to level the scores. With one minute to go, India led 32-31 thanks to an impressive effort by Loitongbham Henry, whose solo run from his own half ended in a goal with a with an acrobatic effort.
Apparently to slow down the pace of the game, the Indian coach Bikramjit Singh opted for a time out with 18 seconds to go. But to his chagrin, on resumption, Mohinder Rawat failed to control the ball properly, giving Al Dughaish the opportunity to intercept him run away to score the equaliser with five seconds to go.
In another match, defending champion, Kuwait, marched on relentlessly with a methodical 32-17 win over Chinese Taipei, with Al Haddad Ali (3), Al Oraifan Dhari (9) and Al Balushi Abdulla (6) being the main scorers. Chen Yu-Liang (3) and Lee Hsin-Hui (3) were the main scorers for Chinese Taipei.
Korea 30 (Song In-Jun 13, Jeong Yi-Kyeong 4) bt Iran 15 (Komeli Mohammed 7, Lofty Mjtaba 5). — V.V. Subrahmanyam
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