Muscat: The Indian hockey team under the supervision of two-time Olympic bronze medalist PR Sreejesh has made a great start to the Junior Asia Cup with a win against Thailand. Defending champions India crushed Thailand 11-0 in a one-sided Pool A match in the Junior Men's Asia Cup on Wednesday. Apart from India and Thailand, Pool A includes Chinese Taipei, Japan, and South Korea. Pool B includes arch-rivals Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, hosts Oman and China.

For India, Arijit Singh Hundal (2nd minute, 24th minute), Arshdeep Singh (8th minute), Gurjot Singh (18th, 45th minute), Saurabh Anand Kushwaha (19th, 52nd minute), Dilraj Singh (21st minute) and Mukesh Toppo (59th minute) scored field goals. Sharda Nand Tiwari (10th minute) scored from a penalty corner while Rohit (29th minute) converted a penalty stroke. India will face Japan on Thursday.

India scored three goals in the first quarter.r

Titlfavoriteses India started the tournament strongly, scoring three goals in the first quarter itself. Arijeet opened the scoring with a reverse flick and Arshdeep easily doubled the lead on the rebound. Sharda Nand later scored with a powerful drag flick in the 10th minute. India continued to dominate the Thailand defense and repeatedly penetrated the opponents' camp but goalkeeper Thawin Phomjant made some excellent saves.

India was ahead 8-0 till half time

Gurjot soon made it 4-0. A minute later, Saurabh also scored a goal by beating the goalkeeper. Goals kept coming for India in which Dilraj scored a brilliant field goal by deflecting a long pass. Arijit scored his second goal of the day in the 24th minute from the top left corner. Rohit converted a penalty stroke a minute before the first half to increase the team's lead to 8-0.

In the second half, the Indian team looked composed and scored goals comfortably rather than being aggressive. Gurjot scored a goal in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Indians played smart hockey with Saurabh and Toppo scoring goals.