Sr women's hockey nationals: Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra win league matches

Kakinada (A.P), Feb 23 (IANS) Hockey Jharkhand, Hockey Haryana, Hockey Maharashtra, and Hockey Madhya Pradesh emerged victorious on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 13th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2023 here.

Hockey Jharkhand defeated Hockey Punjab 2-0 to secure their place in the semifinals. Alka Dungdung (48') and Albela Rani Toppo (52') scored late goals to propel Hockey Jharkhand to the next round.

Following their win, Player of the Match Albela Rani Toppo said, "We played a great game of hockey out there today against Hockey Punjab, they were tenacious throughout and never made it easy for us to create an opening. We kept our wits about us and performed well to book our place in the semifinals in the end and I'm very proud of my team for this".

The second quarterfinal saw Hockey Haryana defeat Hockey Bengal by a score of 5-0. Devika Sen (4', 34'), Player of the Match, opened the scoring and doubled her tally in the game to give Hockey Haryana a solid footing in the game. Amandeep Kaur (9', 60') and Monika Sihag (51') scored as well.

The third match went right down to the wire with Hockey Maharashtra beating defending champions Hockey Association of Odisha by 5-4 in penalty shootouts. Both teams scored a goal each in regulation time with Janhabi Pradhan (36') scoring for the Hockey Association of Odisha and Ashwini Kolekar (37') netting the equalizer for Hockey Maharashtra.

The penalty shootouts went to sudden death, with H Lalruatfeli converting for Hockey Maharashtra and Susmita Patil saving Anupa Barla's stroke to secure Hockey Maharashtra's place in the semifinals.

"This was one of the closest matches I have played at this level and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to experience this in a setup that is similar to the international matches. We aim to keep performing well and play in the Finals as well", said Prativa Ekka, Player of the Match, after the match ended.

The final encounter of the day between Hockey Karnataka and Hockey Madhya Pradesh ended with Hockey Madhya Pradesh winning by a 6-0 margin. The goal scorers were Diksha Tiwari (10', 39'), Player of the Match Anjali Gautam (12'), Preeti Dubey (35', 41'), and Aishwarya Chavan (53). With this complete victory, Hockey Madhya Pradesh has also booked its spot in the semifinals to be held on Saturday.