The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Orissa, Jharkhand in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

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Sport - Hockey

Orissa, Jharkhand in semifinals

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JUNE 9. Defending champion Orissa and Jharkhand entered the semifinals of the 35th ONGC Junior Women's National hockey championship at the KSHA stadium here on Wednesday.

Jharkhand will meet Manipur while Haryana takes on Orissa in the semifinals on Friday.

Jharkhand trounced Himachal Pradesh (13-0), while Orissa blanked host Karnataka (7-0) in the quarterfinals.

Seven of Jharkhand's 13 goals came off penalty corners. Seema Kujur opened the floodgates off the very first penalty corner. Guddi Kumari, a prolific scorer in the tournament, banged in the second and skipper Asunta Lakra made it a series of penalty corners for Jharkhand.

Jharkhand made it 6-0 at the break with Laurenta Karketa (22nd), Seema Kujur (33rd) and Amrita Minz (35th) adding their names to the scorer's list.

Amrita Minz scored seven minutes after resumption, while Asunta scored in the 48th, 50th and 55th minutes off penalty corner conversions.

Himachal Pradesh was a demoralised side by now and with the defence totally wilted Premshila Kujur (65th), Laurenta Karkerta (67th) and Asunta Lakra (70th) made it a baker's dozen for Jharkhand.

Karnataka showed some brief resistance in the second match. The defence entrusted to goalkeeper Dechamma, backs Kaveramma and A.S. Muthamma held firm with support from Maya and Sindhu.

But once Orissa found the breakthrough after 20 minutes, it was a different story. Asim Bilchen Kisspota slipped through and passed on to Binita Kindo who took a shy at the Karnataka goal. Binta Xess made a timely deflection off Kindo's cross to slot the ball into the goal. Orissa then began making concerted efforts to keep the scoreboard ticking. Asim Bilchen Kisspota finally was successful off the seventh penalty corner, Sarita Hanuman's first hit was directed in by Kisspota, who also scored again four minutes before closure. Two more short corner conversions were fruitful (32nd and 57th) with Binita and Saritha scoring Dulari Minz and Saritha Hanuman also raised Orissa's tally. Thursday is a rest day and both the semifinals are slated for Friday.

The results: Quarterfinals: Orissa 7 bt Karnataka 0; Jharkhand 13 bt Himachal Pradesh 0.

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