The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Karnataka beats Kerala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Karnataka beats Kerala

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JAN. 11. An improved showing has put Karnataka in contention to take the top spot in the South Zone women's national hockey cluster. Karnataka scored a 2-0 win over Kerala, scoring in either half of the match.

Karnataka took the lead in the 16th minute and confusion prevailed for a while over who the scorer was. While it seemed that Maya had deflected the ball into the goal, the technical table announced that it was Poonam Machaiah who had scored. The call from the Karnataka bench was that Jemina, wearing a number seven jersey but listed as 12 in the team's list was the scorer but she insisted that she had not scored (when asked during a substitution). Finally, Veena was credited with the goal and the referees agreed.

The home side then gave out a revised list of jersey numbers to end the confusion.

Kerala was even more dispirited after the home team's goal. Only goalkeeper Anjali Krishnan showed some fight for Kerala as she saved a couple of strong attacks. A sweep shot from Veena in the second half was gloved out and later a combined move from Maya, Veena and Rashitha, was effectively padded away by the goalkeeper.

Veena was again the successful scorer for Karnataka. Trapping a neat pass from Poonam Machaiah, Veena slammed the ball in to the goal in the 47th minute.

In an earlier match, Tamil Nadu was made to pay heavily for its weak finishing. Despite taking the lead after a number of missed chances, Tamil Nadu ended up the losing side as Andhra played more aggressively. Nancy put Tamil Nadu ahead in the 13th minute, scoring off a push from the short corner. Andhra rallied strongly after that and Lakshmi Priya first scored the equaliser in the 26th minute off a penalty corner and Prasanna Lakshmi brought off the winning goal in the 55th minute off a penalty corner.

Tamil Nadu's winger Thenmozhi thrice fed passes to the forward line in quick succession but Saranya and Rani were unable to capitalise on them. Saranaya also had the measure of Andhra's goalkeeper Rama Devi off a penalty corner but some fine reflexes shown by Lakshmipriya ended in a goalline save for Andhra.

Tamil Nadu's J.R. Merlin Shalini received a bad hit on the side of her head and had to be taken to hospital for treatment, after which she returned to the stadium.

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