ROURKELA: Haryana preserved its best for the finals of the 21st Sub Junior Girls National Hockey Championship. They looked merciless while defending the tile against Jharkhand in the final played at the Biju Patniak Hockey stadium, here on Sunday (31st August).
Haryana inflicted a humiliating 8-0 defeat over the hapless Jharkhand. Nobody doubted the superiority of the Haryanvi girls but even then staunch Haryana supporters also had not imagined such a huge victory over the hard working Jharkhand.
The domination of Haryana can be judged by the fact that Jharkhand could not enter into the ‘D”’ area of Haryana till 60 minutes. Only in last ten minutes Haryana looked bit relaxed then Jharkhand could make some movements in rival’s territory and even earned 2 Penalty corners also which of course proved futile.
Jharkhand girls looked overawed by the presence of international Rani and two other equally dangerous forwards Monika and Rajni in the Haryana forward line. To curb these ‘trio’s movements Jharkhand adopted defensive tactics from the beginning which proved beneficial to Haryana.
Haryan soon went into the lead when Monica and Rani moving in tandem created an opportunity in the 6th minute and Rani scored the goal. Four minutes later Rajni conveterd their 2nd penalty corner into 2nd goal. Rani made it 3-0 in the 13th minute. These 3 goals within 15 minutes destroyed all hopes for Jharkhand. Haryana led 3-0 at the breather. They started raiding Jharkhand territory in the second half and added five more goals to their kitty. Rani converted a Penalty stroke in 38th minute, skipper Sandeep Kaur converted a penalty corner in 43rd minute. Monica accounted for two goal in 50th and 52nd minutes and then Rani completed the tally by scoring her fourth goal in the 65th minute.
Anupama and Rushmita Tirkey were the umpires.
Rourkela’s ADM Susheel Kumar Das was the chief guest at the concluding function. Ms Frida Topno, President Orissa Women Hockey Association, Olympian Michael Kindo were present at the function.
Anupa Barla of Orissa was declared the best player of the championship.
Earlier in the morning Orissa clinched the third spot by defeating UP 4-2 in the hardline match played at sports hostel ground, Panposh. Although U P girls played a spirited game against the host team but Orissa proved superior. Orissa scored the first goal in the first minute itself through Poonam Barla. She scored one more goal in the 17th minutes also. Susheela Ekka (14th minute) and Lilima Minz (42nd minute) were other scorers for the winners while for U P Kavita Mourya (12th minute) and Shristi Singh (32nd minute) scored the goals.
Anupama and Nidhi Gupta were the umpires.