Chandigarh, Haryana complete semi-final line-up

SONEPAT, Oct 9: Haryana muscled past Odisha 6-1 here on Tuesday to set up a mouth watering semi-final clash with runners-up Jharkhand in the Junior Women National Championship at Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai.

On Thursday semifinals, defending champion Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy will take on Chandigarh at 14 hrs while the last year runners-up Jharkhand will clash with the hosts Haryana two hours later.

Navneet Kaur struck thrice as Haryana raced to a 6-1 score against Odisha in the fourth quarterfinal.

Haryana opened their account through a field goal by Navneet Kaur in the 15th minute. Odisha tried to reduce the margin in the 20th minute with the penalty corner successfully converted by Ambika Toppo.

Haryana who led 3-1 in the first half scored two another goals through Jyoti Gupta in 23rd and Navjot Kaur in 31st minute via penalty corner.

For Haryana Jyoti Gupta (38), Navneet Kaur (41) and (64) to put 6-1 on board.

In the 3rd Quarterfinal match played earlier in the day, Chandigarh scored a hard-fought 5-3 win against Uttar Pradesh to enter the semi-finals.

Chandigarh made an impressive start leading 4-2 in the first half. Own goal by Chandigarh helped Uttar Pradesh to take an early lead in the 3rd minute but Chandigarh fought hard and leveled the score in the 6th minute through penalty corner converted by Pooja Rani. For Chandigarh Navdeep converted two penalty corners in three minutes taking lead to 3-1. Karishma Singh scored another goal for Chandigarh through a direct pass from Hardeep Kaur in the 14th minute.

Uttar Pradesh tried to reduce the margin in the 22nd minute with the field goal scored by Pratibha Chaudhary. Both the teams tried to restrict each other in the second half but Chandigarh successfully availed penalty corner opportunity in the 55th minute through Pooja Rani putting 5-2 on board. Three minutes later Pratibha Chaudhary scored another goal for Uttar Pradesh through penalty corner.

Results

Quarter-final 3: Chandigarh 5 (Pooja Rani 6, 55; Navdeep 8, 10; Karishma Singh 14) beat Uttar Pradesh 3 (Own Goal 3; Pratibha Chaudhary 22, 58)

Quarter-final 4: Haryana 6 (Navneet Kaur 15, 41, 64; Jyoti Gupta 23, 38; Navjot Kaur 31) beat Odisha 1 (Ambika Toppo 20)