Qatar drub India in Handball opener

Doha, Dec 3 (UNI) India received a sound trashing from Qatar as the host won the opening Hand ball match 48-19 in the Asian Games here today.

The difference of class between the two teams was too glaring, Qatari went on the attack and pumped in goals with clinical precision while Indians were getting exposure.

The match was totally one sided with hosts leading 19-9 at half.

As Qatar was playing, the hall was packed to capacity and the winners destroyed their rivals much to the delight of the partisan crowd.

The sheer agility and speed of Qataris numbed the Indians on the court as they just did not have any clue to stop the marauding rivals.

Indian defence was poor, attack hardly existed and in the mid court they ran helplessly after the Qatari players to stop them from scoring but failed.

Qatar took time to settle down, they probed the Indian's strength and weakness and found to their delight that there was hardly any strength in the rival side and then they plundered the goal at will.

What exposure Indian got only the players and coach will tell but the Indian supporters were left red faced as their team stood exposed.

For Qatar Ahmed Al Saad was the main scorer with 12 goals, other big scorers for them were Samir Hasim Ali, M H Ghazal(eight each). For India main scorer were Firoz Ahemd Khan ( 6 ) and Rasheed Khan (3).

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