Railways, Jharkhand, MPHA & Haryana enter Semi-finals

Jharkhand scored a hard fought 1-0 win against Odisha to enter the semi-finals of 2^nd Hockey India Senior Women National Championship at Aish Bagh Hockey Stadium, Bhopal on Sunday morning.

After a goalless half, Jharkhand scored through Sushila Lakra in the 47^th minute.

In another quarter-final match MPHA beat Punjab 7-6 via penalty shoot-out to book their berth in the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals Railways will face Jharkhand while Haryana will take on Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy.

Scoring five goals in each half, defending champions Indian Railways defeated Uttar Pradesh 10-1 to become the first team to enter the semi-finals.

Giving early breakthrough to Railways are forwards Roselin Dung Dung and Skipper Jasjeet Kaur who opened account scoring with goals in the fifth and eighth minutes respectively which helped their team to build pressure on the opponents.

Skipper Jasjeet Kaur topped the score list for Railways with three goals followed by Roselin Dung Dung (2), Vandana Katariya (2), Sushila Chanu (1), Deepika Thakur (1) and Ritu Rani (1) while opponents only reply came through Pratibha Chaudhary.

However, Uttar Pradesh were unable to build on the early break as they committed far too many errors in their defence to allow Railways to gain the upper hand.

“Considering the strength and composition of our team that had both experienced and young players, I am satisfied with our performance. We will try to do better in the semi-finals and then finals to retain the title” said Jasjeet Kaur, Skipper, Railways team.

In the second quarterfinal match of the day Navneet Kaur and Ramandeep Kaur scored twice each as Haryana raced to a 6-1 win against Chandigarh to enter the semi-finals.

Chandigarh who led 1-0 at the half time scored through Anu Bala in the 27^th minute but struggled to find any rhythm or flow in their remaining game.

Haryana got a good breakthrough and leveled the score when Jaspreet Kaur successfully converted penalty corner in the 39^th minute. Two minutes later Udita scored another goal for Haryana. Thereafter Haryana stepped up the pace and found the target in the 51^st and 54^th minute through Ramandeep Kaur. Centre forward Navneet Kaur scored two goals for Haryana in the 55^th and 69^th minute.

Results

Quarter-final 1: Railways 10 (Roselin Dung Dung 5^th, 36^th; Jasjeet Kaur 8^th, 17^th, 43^rd; Vandana Katariya 14^th, 23^rd; Sushila Chanu 37^th; Deepika Thakur 50^th and Ritu Rani 62^nd) beat Uttar Pradesh (Pratibha Chaudhary 32^nd)

Quarter-final 2: Haryana 6( Jaspreet Kaur 39^th; Udita 41^st; Ramandeep Kaur 51^st, 54^th; Navneet Kaur 55^th, 69^th) beat Chandigarh 1 (Anu Bala 27^th). 

 Quarter-final 3: Jharkhand 1 (Sushila Lakra 47^th) beat Odisha 0.

Quarter-final 4: MPHA beat Punjab 7-6