Haryana win national women’s hockey title

BANGALORE: Haryana scored a convincing 3-1 win over Bombay in the final to bag the National Women’s hockey title at the KSHA Stadium on Thursday.

The match was evenly contested with both teams determined to take home the honours but Haryana, who hung in there and held their nerves, proved to be the stronger side.

Haryana made a good start as they had more chances to score in the first few minutes. Most of the forays didn’t find the target but Narinder’s strike in the eighth minute gave the winners the early lead they wanted.

Almost immediately, Bombay doubled their efforts to make a conversion and they succeeded when Nishi Chowdury slotted in the equalizer in the 14th minute. Although both teams tried to go ahead, goals were hard to come by thereafter.

The second half started off on a positive note for the Haryana girls. Navneet scored the second goal for the winners barely eight minutes into the second half, driving Bombay to despair. Bombay had their chances when they were awarded two penalty corners, but they failed to convert both. To add insult to injury, Harpreet scored the third goal for Haryana in the 59th minute off a penalty corner. Ramneek could have made it 4-1, but her strike in the dying minutes of the match hit the goalpost.

Result: Final: Haryana 3 (Narinder 8th; Navneet 39th; Harpreet 59th) bt Bombay: 1 (Nishi Chowdury 14th).

Third place play-off: Bhopal: 1 (Hemlata Yadav 1st) bt Karnataka: 0

Individual awards: Best goalkeeper: Shwetha Shahi (UP), Best half-back: Sushila Pukhrambam (Bombay), Best full-back: Balwinder K Mehra (Bhopal), Best forward: Chaitra (Karnataka), Player of the final: Harpreet (Haryana), Promising player of the tournament: Navneet (Haryana).