Jharkhand, Orissa in jr. National final

Jharkhand will clash with Orissa in the final of the 34th Junior National women's hockey championship.

In the semi-finals on Saturday, Jharkhand beat Haryana 4-1 while Orissa defeated Uttar Pradesh 3-2 in a closely-contested tie.

Haryana took an early lead when J Mini scored a field goal early in the match. However, K Guddi restored parity for Jharkhand immediately.

K Nilima then extended the lead for Jharkhand before Guddi scored twice again to complete a hat-trick and take her team to the final, which will be played on Sunday.

In the second semi-final, Basanti opened the account for Orissa with a field goal but UP's Kunja equalised through a penalty-corner.

Kunja scored in the 40th minute to give UP a 2-1 lead before Sumitra could level the score.

As the match ended in a 2-2 draw after the stipulated time, extra-time was played, but it could not yield any goal.

However, Sumitra then scored a golden goal by converting a penalty-corner to enable Orissa reach the final with a 3-2 victory.

PTI