Hockey team exact revenge on Oman

The Bangladesh hockey team followed the footsteps of their footballing compatriots to make an inspiring start to their Asian Games campaign in Jakarta yesterday.

With the football team's first ever knockout round berth still the talk of the Bangladesh contingent, which had precious little else to look for inspiration, the hockey team added more cheer with a 2-1 win against now-archrivals Oman in their opening match at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium hockey field.

This was a sweet revenge for the men in red and green, who had lost the seventh place deciding match against the same opposition in Incheon four years ago. This was the game Gobinathan Krishnamurthy's men had targeted and the win will definitely help them achieve their target of finishing within the top six teams, barring a major upset against any weaker opposition in the group.

The men in red and green will take on Kazakhstan next, with games against Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan slated for later dates.

“It's always good to start a tournament with a victory,” the Malaysian coach said in his post-match reaction. “This victory will help our journey in the tournament. I am happy with the win, but not satisfied with the result.”

The dissatisfaction was regarding the last quarter, when Bangladesh were really under pressure and had to dig deep. “We gave away too many penalty corners in the final quarter. They could have scored an equaliser there,” Gobinathan explained.

Team's most influential player, Rasel Mahmud Jimmy, admitted the importance of this victory. “We needed to beat Oman to carry our campaign forward in this tournament. Now this win will give us confidence,” the ace forward said.

Bangladesh was the more dominant of the two teams in yesterday's match and they duly took the lead in the 14th minute through a field goal from Arshad Hossain. However Oman, who are currently ranked two places below Bangladesh (31) in world rankings, hit back nine minutes later through a penalty corner (PC), converted by Ammaar Jumma Al-Shaibi. Bangladesh regained the lead five minutes later through Ashraful Islam's PC conversion, and they held on to the slender lead for the next two quarters, despite coming under heavy pressure from the opposition towards the end, to seal victory.