The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Unconvincing win by Haryana

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Thursday, Jul 07, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

Unconvincing win by Haryana

Kirti Patil

NEW DELHI: The all-conquering Haryana overcame early glitches to beat Uttar Pradesh 7-0, but it was an unconvincing show before its crucial Pool `A' league match against Railways, in the 53rd National women's hockey championship at the Shivaji Stadium here on Wednesday.

Striker Sarvjeet Kaur slotted home three goals while Kamla Cheema had two, but credit must go to Uttar Pradesh for the way it tackled Haryana early on. The Railways camp must have noted a few things going into its Friday clash with Haryana.

Though it was a match of only academic interest, Uttar Pradesh decided it had to prove a point or two. Spurred by skipper Meenakshi, the Uttar Pradesh frontline of Poonam Singh and Ashrita Toppo gave Haryana the jitters. Uttar Pradesh, in fact, came very close to scoring on two occasions, but Haryana defender Sandeep Kaur foiled the moves.

Constant drizzle

Playing under constant drizzle that left the turf heavy, both teams had difficulty in controlling the pace of the ball. The ground was so heavy that ball would stop midway through and probably Haryana was not prepared for such slow game.

With Haryana coach Baldev Singh shouting at the top of his voice, the effect finally rubbed on to the team. Drag-flick expert Jasjeet Kaur and skipper Simarjeet moved up from the centre but Uttar Pradesh goalkeeper Nisha Singh left them bewildered with three classic saves.

Uttar Pradesh retaliated through Eti Srivastava. She moved up from the left, crossed the ball to Poonam in the right in the ninth minute. Standing at the 45-yard line, Poonam shot a powerful grounder but Meenakshi was late by a whisker, though the ball went straight into the post.

The first goal

After having wasted the first penalty corner, Haryana made amends and scored the first goal of the match in the 12th minute through Sarvjeet. Uttar Pradesh again had a good run, holding Haryana at bay for next 15 minutes before Kamla Cheema (27th minute) scored a regulation goal.

Two minutes later, Jasjeet set her skipper Simarjeet for a fantastic goal. Dribbling past five defenders from the centre-line, Jasjeet moved slightly towards the left and created space for herself before sending a cross to the unmarked Simarjeet, who slammed the ball into the boards.

On changing the ends, Sarvjeet scored twice while Jasjeet finally got the due for her hard work.

In Pool `B' PEPSU helped Jharkhand move into the semifinals. Indian Universities, the runner-up of the last Nationals, was pathetic to say the least. Universities lost 2-5 to PEPSU and yielded the outside chance it had of making the grade. Railways, Haryana and Mumbai are the other teams to have made it to the semifinals.

Kerala loses

In yet another inconsequential league match, Air India defeated Kerala 6-1. Kerala finished its league engagements with one draw from six matches. Uttar Pradesh also ended its league with three wins and three losses.

The results: Pool A: Haryana 7 (Sarvjeet Kaur 12th, 37th and 67th, Kamla Cheema 27th and 60th, Simarjeet Kaur 29th, Jasjeet Kaur 40th) bt Uttar Pradesh 0.

Air India 6 (Vijaya Mogal 11th, Pramila Ekka 14th, Anjela Beck 19th, Mridula Kesharwani 39th, Ambrin Fatma 61st, Smiley Hemalatha 65th) bt Kerala 1 (Soumya M. 39th).

Pool B: PEPSU 5 (Arun Bala 4th and 58th, Manpreet Kaur 25th, Ranjit Kaur 39th, Vandana 48th) bt Indian Universities 2 (Rajnesh Mudgil 13th, Minni 33rd).

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