Gritty Iran secures victory over Oman
(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Iran rallied from a session down to finish with a 2-1 win against hosts Oman in the Asian Beach Handball Championship at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex (SQSC) on Monday.
The Iranians won 10-14 14-10 7-6 after forcing the contest into a penalty shootout decider.
A Jordanian player shoots during a match against Chinese Taipei
Iran's Masood Mohseni was the Man of the Match scoring 15 points as he excelled in both attack and defence. Nasr al Tamtami was Oman's standout performer of the day contributing 12 points.
After the come-from-behind performance Iran captain Mehdi Ghashghaei expressed his satisfaction with the outcome. 'We recovered well after a pretty ordinary start and made the maximum from the limited opportunities that we got to pull off a win from the jaws of defeat' he said.
'We launched a different game plan in the second session and exploited Oman's weak points and that helped us to stay on top during the closing stages of the game.'
For the host nation it was a second successive defeat – following Saturday's loss to Bahrain - and quite understandably Oman team manager Talib al Afandi was disappointed.
'We threw away the game in the latter stages after having made a good start. I hope the boys will bounce back in their next outing against Pakistan on Tuesday' he said. Afandi pointed out that his team lost due to 'crucial mistakes' made during the penalty shootout.
Oman raced to a 10-2 lead after the first five minutes of the game and that forced Iran to request for the first timeout with the visitors clearly under pressure at that stage.
Tamtami Asad al Hasani Ahmed al Hinai and Hussain al Jabri formed an effective combination as the home side had the better of the exchanges in the opening session. However Mohseni found form in the second session and soon the initiative slipped out of Oman's grasp as the Iranians held their nerve in the shootout to clinch their second successive victory.
In another men's game Pakistan pipped Bahrain 2-1 (16-14 18-24 7-6) and Qatar beat Vietnam 2-0 (24-13 24-10).
In women's action Vietnam posted a 2-0 (12-11 16-15) win against Turkmenistan while Chinese Taipei edged past Jordan 2-1.
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