Jharkhand, MPHA enter Semi-finals

Scoring twice in each half, Jharkhand edged out Punjab 4-1 and entered the semi-final of 2^nd Hockey India Junior Women National Championship at Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai here on Monday.

The quarter-final game was well-fought and Punjab had their chances, but it was Jharkhand who came good with two easy goals early in the first-half to make progress.

Jharkhand joined defending champions MPHA who earlier in the day defeated Delhi 5-0 in the first quarter-final match.

Punam M. Tete scored two early goals for Jharkhand in the 5^th and 8^th minute. Punjab tried to reduce in the margin in the 17^th minute through Navjot Kaur.

Jharkhand who led 2-1 at the first half, scored third goal in the 53^rd minute when their drag-flick specialist Anima Minz made no mistake in converting penalty corner. Three minutes later Nomita Xalxo scored another goal for Jharkhand putting 4-1 on the board. Punjab missed some early scoring chances.

In the first quarterfinal game defending Champion Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy defeated Delhi 5-0 to become the first team to enter the semi-finals.

MPHA who missed three easy scoring chances in the first fifteen minutes of the game, scored their first goal in the 24^th minute when Ramngaihzuali Ralte successfully converted penalty corner.

MPHA who led 1-0 at the half time, started their game with pace in the second half and scored their second goal in the 49^th minute when their drag-flicker Shivani Singh made no mistake in converting penalty corner. One minute later Reena Kataria got a touch to a long hit from the centre- line by Diksha Tiwari for the third MPHA goal.

Shivani Singh scored off another goal for MPHA through a direct pass from Priyanka Chandrawat in the 57^th minute and Ramngaihzuali Ralte scored her second goal in the 62^nd minute. MPHA goalkeeper Swati made some good saves in the second half and denied any scoring opportunity to the opponents.

Delhi missed a couple of scoring opportunities throughout the game.

“I am not satisfied with our performance as we would have done better against Delhi. Our players lacked coordination and missed easy scoring chances. I was expecting my team to score atleast 12 goals.

“We have to improve our coordination among the players before playing semis” said Paramjeet Singh, Coach of Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy.

Results

Quarter-final 1: MPHA 5 (Ramngaihzuali Ralte 24, 62; Shivani Singh 49, 57; Reena Kataria 50) beat Delhi 0.

Quarter-final 2: Jharkhand 4 (Punam M Tete 5, 8; Anima Minz 53; Nomita Xalxo 56) beat Punjab 1 (Navjot Kaur 17)