India opened their campaign in the men’s hockey Olympic qualifying tournament with a rousing 8-0 win against Russia at the Prince of Wales Country Club here on Saturday.

Prabhjot Singh, who has been in tremendous form in the past one year, did the star turn for the Indians scoring three goals (19th, 29th, 65th) while Dilip Tirkey (14th), Shivendra Singh (34th) Tushar Khandekar (36th), Sardara Singh (48th) and V Ramachandra Raghunath (54th) netted the others.

Scoring four goals in each half, the Indians left nothing to chance and were on the attack against the 50th ranked team who appeared clueless.

The Russians left huge gaps in their defence and the Indian forwards needed no second invitation and came away with a flattering scoreline.

Using the quick short passes to good effect, India moved fluently and ripped apart the Russian defence that increasingly grew tentative before yielding ground at the first hint of trouble. Only late in the game when the Indians erred in relaxing their grip on the game did the Russians squeezed in a couple of moves the last of which led to two back-to-back penalty corners on the stroke of full-time. India, backed by a sizeable group of expatriate countrymen, did not have to wait long for their first goal. After Raghunath failed with an early penalty corner, Dilip Tirkey was on the mark with a well-angled direct hit to the boards.

Stepping up the pace, India went on to score at regular intervals. Prabhjot found the net twice in succession, first following a goalmouth scramble and then putting home a Rajpal Singh pass.

Just before the break, Shivendra made it 4-0 after being put through by Prabodh Tirkey pass.

On change of ends, India sustained the pressure and were up 5-0 within the first minute when Khandekar found the net even before the Russian defence could settle down.As the Indian attacks gathered momentum, Sardara, Raghunath and Prabhjot struck to complete the rout with the Russian defence all at sea. In all, India received seven penalty corners two of which they converted, while also conceding two.

Britain, Austria  win

Great Britain and Austria also made winning starts in the tournament, defeating Mexico 11-0 and Chile 4-3 respectively.

Great Britain, after being restricted to 2-0 in the first half, turned in a fine performance to overwhelm Mexico, who failed to maintain their initial resistance.

Leading the British pack were Simon Mantell and Matt Daly with two goals apiece, while Richard Mantell, Stephen Dick, Richard Alexander, Rob Moore, Barry Middleton, Ashley Jackson and James Tindall, scored one apiece.

In the day’s last match, Austria hung on grimly against Chile to force a thrilling win.