India slam six against Cambodia in the Nehru Cup

India made a flying start to the ONGC Nehru Cup football tournament, overpowering Cambodia 6-0, with Steven Dias and Sunil Chetri scoring a brace and N P Pradeep and skipper Bhaichung Bhutia also chipping in with a goal each.

Once the hosts settled down, they dominated the encounter and the match was largely played in the Cambodian half as the South-east Asians were taught a footballing lesson.

The forward line of Bhutia and local lad Sunil Chetri constantly troubled the opposition defenders and Renedy Singh and Steven Dias were quick to capitalise.

The Indians took the lead in the 17th minute when Pradeep received a lay-off from Bhutia and unleashed a vicious right-footer that screamed into the bottom left hand corner giving Cambodian custodian Oum Veasna no chance.

The goal increased the confidence of Bob Houghton's side and the Indians proceeded to give the opposition more trouble with a freekick from Renedy in the 28th minute hitting the crossbar.

On one of the rare Cambodian forays, the ball was saved on the Indian goalline by Renedy.

But the Indian attacks kept coming and a sliding Pradeep hit a Dias centre just wide off goal.

The woodwork denied India again when a header from Pradeep was blocked by the keeper and Bhutia's rebound came off the upright.

Pradeep had to go off after getting a knock towards the end of the first half and was replaced by Mehrajuddin Wadoo.

India made the match almost safe at the stroke of half time when Surkumar Singh made an overhead pass to Bhutia and the skipper was brought down by the rival keeper. Bhutia promptly proceeded to double India's lead.

The second period lacked intensity initially. India got a few scoring opportunities but had to wait till the 73rd minute to increase their lead.

After Bhutia and Renedy were substituted by Abhishek Yadav and Clifford Miranda, the former got into the act straightaway when his strike was blocked by Oum Veasna only for Steven Dias to find the net.

The visitors were a demoralised lot by now and Chetri delighted the home crowd by finding the net in the 83rd and 85th minutes.

First he made a sublime chip from outside the box to beat the goalie and then hit a powerful volley off a Miranda centre from the left.

The exclamation point was provided by Dias whose shot from outside the area compounded the misery for the Cambodian goalkeeper in the 89th minute.

The Indians thus found four goals in the last quarter of an hour after Bhutia and Renedy went off.

The Cambodians were distinctly second best as the allround display of the hosts left them without any answers.

Syria and Bangladesh face off in the tournament's second match tomorrow.