Muscat: A depleted India suffered a 1-5 thrashing at the hands of Oman in an international football friendly match, here on Thursday.
India fielded youngsters Gurjinder Singh and Lester Fernandes in the defence and midfield respectively and also were without the strike duo of Sunil Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua.
The absence of the some established players showed as India were clueless in the midfield and attack while the defence was caught napping several times.
Al-Ghassani Mohammed (fifth minute), Ismail Al Ajmi (7th and 58th), Hasan Rabie (87th) and Abdullah Thuwaini (90th) scored for Oman while Joaquim Abranches found the target for India in the 64th minute at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex Stadium.
India, who were led by Samir Naik, never recovered after conceding two early goals and they got very few scoring chances in the match most part of which were dominated by the home who were ranked 59 places above the visitors at 95.
As early as the fifth minute, the Indian defence failed to clear a Saad Suhail cross from the right and Al-Ghassani jumped higher than four blue shirts to nod home comfortably.
Two minutes later, India were down 0-2 with goalkeeper Karanjit Singh beaten fair and square by a powerful left-footer by Ismail Al Ajmi from top left side of the box.
India looked like coming into their own terms towards the close of the opening session with some good moves inside the Omani box but Savio Medeira's boys failed to have a clear look at the opposition goal.
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