The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Convincing win for Himachal Pradesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 07, 2004

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Convincing win for Himachal Pradesh

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 6. Himachal Pradesh ensured a place in the knock-out stage of the junior National women's hockey tournament with a 5-0 victory over Bihar at the KSHA Stadium here on Sunday.

Himachal Pradesh began its scoring only in the 24th minute after wasting three previous penalty corners. It was left to Amandeep to effect the breakthrough off the fourth short corner awarded.

The second half also saw the President of the IWHF, Ms. Vidya Stokes' team taking a short while to get the combinations working. Nidhi finally struck off the seventh corner.

It was only after Himachal had slotted in the third goal (53rd) off some deft stickwork from its captain Dimple, that Bihar earned its second half corners. The two coming in quick succession (55th and 56th) however ended up as missed chances. Himachal Pradesh kept up the pressure and Aika (59th) swept the ball past Bihar's goal-keeper Smita Ranjan to score the fourth goal.

Dimple was in the right place at the right time to score HP's fifth goal a minute before the final whistle was blown.

In a Pool `C' match, PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) caused some worry for the host team Karnataka. PEPSU slotted home nine goals against Vidarbha making the final fixture in the pool on Monday a must win situation for the home side. PEPSU has the advantage on goal difference and even a draw will see PEPSU making the last eight.

The dimunitive Sukhjinder Kaur was in her elements notching up six goals in a row for PEPSU. Sukhjinder scored first (19th) interspersed between Pooja Rani's (7th) and Nihal Kaur (25th). From then on it was Sukhjinder all the way scoring the next six (28th, 34th, 45th, 50th, 60th and 62nd). Sukhjinder's fourth goal in this sequence was off a penalty corner.

The results:

Himachal Pradesh 5 (Amandeep, Nidhi, Dimple (2), Aika) bt Bihar 0.

PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union 9 (Sukhjinder Kaur (7), Pooja Rani, Nihal Kaur) bt Vidarbha 0.

Maharashtra 6 (Mane Sadhana (3), Sawant Pratibha, Tonpe Ashwini, Navale Kamal) bt Assam 0.

Punjab 11 (Gurjeet Kaur (4), Mamta Sharma (3), Kirandip Kaur, Sarbjeet Kaur, Parjeet Kaur, Priyanka Rana) bt West Bengal 0.

Gujarat 0 drew with Bundelkhand 0.

Delhi 10 bt Rajasthan 0.

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