ELMINA, Jan 23: Egypt sent a warning to rivals for their African Nations Cup crown when they crushed Cameroon 4-2 in the Group ‘C’ opener in Kumasi on Tuesday.

Striker Mohamed Zidan scored a double and Hosni Abd Rabou also struck twice for the five-time African champions with Samuel Eto’o netting Cameroon’s two at the Baba Yara stadium.

The first half was one-sided with Hosni opening the scoring after 14 minutes with a penalty.

The Indomitable Lions were nowhere to be seen and fell two goals behind three minutes later when Zidan beat keeper Carlos Idriss Kameni from close range at the end of a swift counter-attack.

Worse was to come for Cameroon with Zidan giving Egypt a three-goal advantage at halftime with a wonderful shot that went under Kameni’s crossbar.

Even though Cameroon coach Otto Pfister reshuffled his midfield at halftime, Egypt were simply too good for the 2002 champions.

Eto’o pulled a goal back on 51 minutes but his side’s hopes were dashed nine minutes from time when Hosni scored his second with a 25-metre drive.

Eto’o doubled his personal tally in injury time with a penalty and is now only one goal short of the Nations Cup record of 14 set by Ivory Coast’s Laurent Pokou in 1970.

Zambia scored a comfortable 3-0 win over a spritied Sudan in a Group ‘C’ battle of the outsiders.

The Chipolopolo, as the Zambian team are known, took an early lead through a James Chamanga lob after just two minutes and added a second five minutes after the interval through the outstanding Jacob Mulenga.

Felix Katongo further punished poor defending by Sudan when he tapped home the third goal in the 59th minute after goalkeeper Abdalla Elmuez failed to hold on to a shot by Rainford Kalaba.

After going in front, the south Africans, who were without their leading scorer Christopher Katongo through suspension, pressed on as in-form Chamanga combined well with Felix Katongo in the ninth minute only for Katongo's shot from on top of the box to scream across the face of goal.

Sudanese target man Faisat Agab's bouncing header on 48 minutes produced a finger-tip save from Mweene but Katongo responded for Zambia almost immediately as Elmuez was forced to stretch his giant frame before he could scramble the ball for a corner.

Mulenga headed home from the resultant corner for Zambia's second goal of the night before Katongo added a third with a cool tap-in.

Mweene was forced to produce an unusual punch-out of Jasteine's 66th minute powerful freekick as Sudan continued to mount pressure for a consolation goal but again and again they did not have the ammunition to get on the score board.

Mulenga was denied a second goal by Elmuez who dived full length to parry for a corner the lively Zambian striker's goal-bound header in the 84th minute. —AFP