Haryana, Jharkhand storm into semifinals

Hockey Junior Nationals

Jharkhand and Haryana scored convincing victories to march into the semifinals of the Hockey India Women’s Junior National Championship here on Monday.

While title favourites Haryana ripped apart a listless Rajasthan 14-0 to seal their last-four spot from Pool A, Jharkhand cruised to a 6-2 win over Maharashtra to confirm their knockout berth from Pool C at the Chamundi Vihar ground.

As the scoreline suggests, Haryana dished out a command show against Rajasthan with Reet top-scoring with four goals.

She kick-started the fiesta, slotting home in the ninth minute before doubling the lead four minutes later. Neha Goyal (14th) and Narinder Kaur (15th) then struck in quick succession as Haryana opened up a 4-0 lead inside quarter of an hour.

Jyoti Gupta (24th), Narinder (26th) Hardeep Kaur (30th) and Devika Sen got onto the scoresheet to place Haryana with a whopping 8-0 advantage at half-time.The barrage continued upon resumption too as Rajasthan found no answers to contain the damage. Jyoti (37th, 4st) completed her treble, Neha (41st) her brace, Reet (43rd, 69th) her quadruple and Hardeep (64rd) her double as Haryana wrapped up a crushing victory.

Results: Pool A: Haryana: 14 (Reet 9th, 13th, 43rd, 69th, Neha Goyal 14th, 41st, Narinder Kaur 15th, 26th, Jyoti Gupta 24th, 37th, 41st, Hardeep Kaur 30th, 63rd, Devika Sen 32nd) bt Rajasthan: 0; Sports Authority of India: 7 (Anjali Gautam 6th, 8th, Manisha 45th, 50th, 64th, 69th, Sangeeta Rose Kullu 37th) bt Tamil Nadu: 0.

Pool C: Jharkhand: 6 (Nutanbela Tiru 4th, 12th, 18th, Ranjeeta Minz 21st, Kanti Pradhan 29th, Nomita Xalxo 50th) bt Maharashtra: 2 (Puja Dhinde 28th, Priyanka Patil 50th); Uttar Pradesh: 9 (Shreya Singh 17th, 51st, 55th, Sonal Tiwari 37th, 57th, 60th, Chand Khan 49th, Sonam 59th, Priyanka Gautam 67th) bt Bengal: 0.