It was an action-packed day at the 11th Hockey India Junior Women National Championship 2021 as the quarterfinals unveiled with the first encounter between hosts Hockey Jharkhand and Hockey Punjab, where the Hockey Jharkhand defeated Hockey Punjab by 6-2.
After two quarters of intense play, the two teams went into the half-time break with the scoreboard reading 0-0. It was the hosts who scored in the 31st minute through Elin Dungdung. Hockey Punjab were quick to pull one to equalise in the 37th minute through Karmanpreet Kaur. But after that, the hosts upped their ante in attack as they pumped goals through Deepika Soreng (39′), Elin Dungdung (47′, 52’), Rajni Kerketta (49′) to take a comfortable 5-1 lead. Though Captain Harpreet Kaur scored a goal in the 54th minute for Hockey Punjab, Rajni Kerketta (57′) did a fine job of finishing the play for hosts with a sixth goal in the net to ensure they moved up to the semi-finals.
In another closely-fought quarter final encounter, Hockey Haryana beat Odisha 5-3 to make it to the semi-final. Although it was Odisha who scored first through Aten Topno (15′), Hockey Haryana equalised via Seema (16′) but Odisha bounced back with a goal by Jyoti Chhatri (20′) to take a 2-1 lead. But following the half-time break, Hockey Haryana worked in strong and structured attack to score back-to-back goals. It was Monu (32′), Bharti (40′), Pinki (43′), Manju (49′) scored goals for Hockey Haryana to take a fine 5-2 lead. Aten Topno (51′) scored Odisha’s third goal but that wasn’t enough to stop Hockey Haryana from romping home to a victory.
Hockey Chandigarh, on the other hand, registered a comfortable 4-1 win against Hockey Andhra Pradesh. Goals were scored by Priyanka (10′, 58′), Arti Kashyap (26′) and Rakhi (36′) for Hockey Chandigarh while Gedela (14′) scored the lone for Hockey Andhra Pradesh.
In the last quarterfinal of the day, Hockey Maharashtra beat Uttar Pradesh Hockey 5-2. Utkarsha Nana Kale (12′, 49′) and Kajal Sadashiv Atpadkar (21′, 44′) starred in the match with double goals while Shivani Sitaram Sahu (13′) scored a goal for Hockey Maharashtra while Swarnika (30′, 60′) scored twice for Uttar Pradesh Hockey but in vain as they couldn’t match up to Hockey Maharashtra’s attack.
In the Semi-finals to be played on 28th October, Hockey Haryana will take on Hockey Chandigarh in the first semi-final while hosts Hockey Jharkhand will take on Hockey Maharashtra in the second semi-final of the day.
