The Hindu : Western to meet Northern

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Western to meet Northern

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH.22. Defending champion Western Railway set up a title-clash with Northern Railway after recording a comfortable 5-1 win over North-Eastern Railway in the penultimate league match of the 25th All India inter-Railway women's hockey tournament at Begumpet Police Stadium here on Monday.

Earlier, Northern Railway scored a hard-fought 3-2 win over South-Eastern Railway to ensure a virtual repeat of the last edition.

The star-studded Western Railway was clearly the superior outfit against the hapless NE Railway. The script was on the familiar lines once it shot into lead in the first minute through a field goal from Sanggai Chanu. For, within four minutes, Saba Anjum completed a wonderful goal set up by the creative combination of Pauline Surin and Manorama. Just before the break, Western Railway made it 3-0 with Saba Anjum again in the scoring act of a goalmouth melee.

On resumption, Western continued to dominate as most of the action was confined to the rival territory. The few times Ashrita Toppo and Meenakshi threatened to slip in to the rival zone, they were thwarted by the efficacy of the defence.

It scored the fourth goal when Sushma made amends for her failure to trap a long centre inside the striking area in front of an open goal in the 42nd minute. She showed wonderful anticipation this time around to position herself of a long cross from the half-line to execute an angular carpet drive on the run to complete the tally for the Western Railway outfit. Within seven minutes, Nishi Chauhan netted the fifth goal for the winner.

Soon, there was tension in Western camp which also saw Manorama shown an yellow card and even conceded a penalty-corner.

The only consolation for NE Railway was that it reduced the margin when Ashrita Toppo deflected a long shot from top of the `D' in the dying minutes.

In another match, Northern Railway warded off spirited challenge from South-Eastern Railway thanks to a Gurpreet Kaur penalty-corner hit in the 30th minute and a brace of field goals by Preetam Siwach in the 40th and 68th minutes.

For the loser, Sushma Susan Minz and Adeline Kerketta were the scorers in the 44th and 67th minutes.

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