Jharkhand made it to the final of the Hockey India Sub-junior Women’s National Championship after they beat Uttar Pradesh 2-1 in the semifinal at the Khuman Lampak Hockey Stadium in Imphal on Saturday.
In the summit clash on Sunday, they will face off against Haryana, who earned a comfortable 8-0 win against Madhya Pradesh in the other semifinal.
Having earned an easy win in the quarterfinals against Punjab, Jharkhand began the game full of confidence against UP. But despite their efforts, they couldn’t get the breakthrough in the first quarter.
Even the second quarter remained goalless for most part as neither of the two teams could find the target. But Jharkhand’s hard work paid off as they finally took the lead in the dying minutes of the second quarter when skipper Balo Horo sounded the board in the 30th minute.
After the change of ends, Jharkhand doubled the lead when Nisha Minj scored in the 41st minute and it seemed Jharkhand would run away with the match from there on. However, UP had other plans and they reduced the lead when Purnima Yadav scored four minutes later. In the last quarter, UP did their best to equalize but Jharkhand held on to earn the victory and make it to the final.
Meanwhile, in the first semifinal, it was a walk in the park for Haryana as their skipper Saavi led from the front with five goals. Nidhi scored a brace while the remaining goal was scored by Riya.
The onslaught began as early as the 10th minute when Nidhi opened the scoring for Haryana. A minute later she found the target once more and doubled their lead. Although MP were able to keep them from scoring in the second quarter, Riya made it 3-0 in the 35th.
After that it was Saavi’s brilliance that had the MP players running for cover. In a span of 19 minutes the captain scored the five goals (39’, 49’, 55’, 57’, 58’) as Haryana won the game quite convincingly in the end.
