Saifai (Uttar Pradesh), 23 April 2015: The battle for the top spot continues as the participating teams made a rousing start on the fourth day of the 5th Senior National Hockey Championship 2015 (Women) ‘’B’’ Division being played at Saifai, Uttar Pradesh.
The day started with a thrilling encounter between Hockey Uttrakhand and Hockey Gujarat where they posted a goalless draw 0-0. In the second match, Hockey Bihar marked a 4-1 win against Manipur Hockey followed by Vidarbha Hockey Association who wrapped up the day with a crushing 3-0 victory over Hockey Jammu & Kashmir.
The first match of the day between Hockey Uttarakhand and Hockey Gujarat was an exciting clash as in the entire session both teams were seen putting pressure on each other and score. But unable to break each other’s defence to capitalize on the opportunities the match ended in a draw, 0-0.
The second game for the day saw goals finally getting scored as Hockey Bihar proved to be dominant side that played for a 4-1 win against Hockey Manipur. Making their intentions clear from the word go Hockey Bihar maintained a constant attack on Hockey Manipur. In the 7th minute Hockey Bihar got a penalty corner in their name when Anita Sawasi made no mistake in converting. Continuing their pressure, Nagma Khatoon in the 17th minute doubled the score for Hockey Bihar as she slapped a clean pass into the nets and taking the score to 2-0. Just before the end of first half hockey Manipur looking at making a come-back in the match scored through a field effort coming from the stick of Bidyarani Devi T. with the goal the half time scores read 2-1 in favor of Hockey Bihar. The second half yielded similar results for Hockey Bihar as they attacked and scored goals. While on the other hand, Hockey Manipur was unsuccessful in adding any further goal to their tally. Hockey Bihar added two more goals in the 48th and 50th minute and taking a comfortable win of 4-1.
The last match for the day between Vidarbha Hockey Association and Hockey Jammu & Kashmir was a clean win for the former as the game ended in their favor 3-0. The going got easy for Vidarbha Hockey Association because of Sangeets Meshram’s form and great play as she went on to score all three goals of the match leaving the opponents stunned. Not wasting much time, Vidarbha Hockey Association got into business immediately as just 3 minutes into the game Sangeeta Meshram entering the D slammed eth ball into the nets giving eth opponents the first dent. Keeping her momentum high Sangeeta doubled the teams score in the 9th minute through another brilliant field effort and taking the score to 2-0. Already trailing the game, Hockey Jammu & Kashmir got another jolt in the 16th minute as Sangeeta Meshram scored the third field goal successfully. Coming into the game at 3-0, Vidarbha Hockey Association tried to convert further but failed to do so in the entire session. On the other hand looking at opening their account Hockey Jammu & Kashmir was kept at bay in the entire game, resulting in Vidarbha Hockey Association taking the game 3-0.
Results of the day-
Pool A Hockey Uttarakhand 0 vs Hockey Gujarat 0
Pool B Hockey Bihar 4 Anita Sawasi (7 min-PC), Nagma Khatoon (17 min-FG), Shilwanti Minjur (48 min-FG), Chandani Singh (50 min-PC) vs Hockey Manipur 1 Bidyarani Devi T (29 min-FG)
Pool B Vidarbha Hockey Association 3 Sangeeta Meshram (3 min-FG, 9 min-FG, 16 min-FG) vs Hockey Jammu & Kashmir 0