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Al Khabourah caused a flutter in the ongoing National Hockey League as they shocked giants Ahli-Sidab 4-2 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex yesterday.
In fact, Ahli-Sidab were flying high, having beaten arch-rivals Seeb in the opening encounter on Saturday. But they found a surprise package in Al Khabourah, the latter’s excellent performance signalling a bright future for hockey in Oman.
Never before teams from the interior regions of the Sultanate have excelled in the hockey, but the late improvement in standards of the teams from Batinah region and Dhofar region provides a healthy picture.
Al Khabourah started off well with two early strikes in the first half. The strong approach caught Ahli-Sidab unaware and it was a bit too late when they gained normalcy and played their normal game.
At the break, Ahli-Sidab trailed 1-3 and in the end they did score one more but Al Khabourah too had a smell of the net.
The scorers for Al Khabourah were Abdullah Mohammed (brace), Saleh Ibrahim and Waleed Yaqub, while for Sidab the successful players were Younis Darwish and Yousuf Khalfan.
In the match that followed, Seeb survived a major scare by struggling to a 1-1 draw against Dhofar’s Al Nasr Club.
In fact, Al Nasr took an early lead when Adil Mohammed sounded the board in the fourth minute.
The goal also changed the tempo of the match as Al Nasr were content in defending the early lead rather than trying for more.
On the other hand, Seeb struggled to find room and all their forays were blunted by the burly Al Nasr defenders.
With just five minutes to go for the final whistle, a penalty corner earned came as a blessing in disguise for Seeb.
Much to the relief Salim Ahmed made no mistake with this golden opportunity.
Tomorrow, Ahli-Sidab will take on Al Nasr, while Seeb will play Al Khabourah to identify the top two teams of Group A.

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