India began their Hero Intercontinental Cup campaign in an emphatic fashion by registering a comprehensive 5-0 victory over Chinese Taipei at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday. A hat-trick from captain Sunil Chhetri took the game away from the visitors, while Udanta Singh and Pronay Halder chipped in with their maiden strikes, while the hapless Taipei players looked on.

The Blue Tigers dominated proceedings from the get-go and nearly took the lead as early as the third minute when Sunil Chhetri found himself with a golden chance to break the deadlock. After some neat work from Udanta down the flanks, the ball was squared to Chhetri inside the box but he was unable to direct his shot on target. Just ten minutes later, Chhetri rectified the mistake and found the back of the net after being put through on goal by Jeje Lalpekhlua. The 33-year old held off his marker before finishing neatly into the bottom corner.

Taipei’s young defence could barely contain the lethal duo of Jeje and Chhetri. The strikers combined again in the 20^th minute to create another solid chance, but custodian Wen-Chieh Pan managed to see it away. However, Pan could not repeat his feat when Chhetri came forward to lodge in his second of the night in the 34th minute. Debutante Anirudh Thapa played out a neat one-two with Jeje before the Mizo Sniper released Chhetri on goal, who took just one touch before delivering a stinging shot through the goalkeeper’s legs.

Chhetri had another glorious chance at the brink of half-time but failed to beat Pan this time. The half ended 2-0 with India deservedly in the lead after their dominant display.

The second half started on a similar vein for the Blue Tigers as they scored their third in the 47^th minute. The pacey Udanta found himself free in space down the edge of the penalty box and cleverly beat the defender before curling the ball into the far corner.

On the stroke of the hour mark, Chhetri scored India’s fourth. The impressive Thapa slipped the ball through to Chhetri, who unleashed a fierce drive to mark his first international hat-trick in eight years. However, India refused to slow down. Halder put the icing on the cake with an absolute belter in the 78^th minute. The FC Goa midfielder picked up the ball from the edge of the box before unleashing a fierce shot which found the top corner past a diving keeper.

India’s custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was barely tested through the 90 minutes but was still alert enough to produce a crucial save in added time to ensure a clean sheet. That proved to be the last action of the game with Constantine’s men routing Gary White’s men to give their campaign a perfect start.

Hero of the Match: Sunil Chhetri

Starting Lineups:

INDIA: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Pritam Kotal, Anas Edathodika, Sandesh Jhingan, Subhasish Bose, Anirudh Thapa, Pronay Halder, Udanta Singh, Sunil Chhetri (C), Halicharan Narzary, Jeje Lalpekhlua

CHINESE TAIPEI: Wen-Chieh Pan, Chien-Ming Wan, Ting-Yang Chen, Tzu-Kuei Hung, Wei-Chuan Chen, William Rupert James Donkin, Chang-Lun Lin, Chao-An Chen, Yi-Wei Chen, Hao-Wei Chen, En-Le Chu

India will meet Kenya next on June 4 where they would want to keep their momentum at par, while Taipei go on to face New Zealand on June 5.