Women's hockey: Railways, Haryana make semis

Defending champions Indian Railways scored five goals in each half to spank Uttar Pradesh 10-1 and become the first team to enter the semi-finals of the second Hockey India Senior Women's National Championship at the Aish Bagh Hockey Stadium in Bhopal on Sunday.

Providing Railways with early breakthroughs were forwards Roselin Dung Dung and skipper Jasjeet Kaur, opening the scoring in the fifth and eighth minutes respectively.

Skipper Jasjeet topped the scorers list for Railways with three goals followed by Dung Dung (2), Vandana Katariya (2), Sushila Chanu (1), Deepika Thakur (1) and Ritu  Rani (1), while Pratibha Chaudhary scored the lone goal for UP.

UP were unable to build on the early break as they committed far too many errors in defence to allow Railways gain the upper hand.

"Considering the strength and composition of our team that had both experienced and young players, I am satisfied with our performance. We will try to do better in the semi-finals and then final in order to retain the title," said Railways captain Jasjeet.

In the second quarter-final match, Navneet Kaur and Ramandeep Kaur scored two goals each as Haryana scored an emphatic 6-1 win over Chandigarh.

Chandigarh, who led 1-0 at the half time, scored through Anu Bala in the 27th minute but struggled to find any rhythm thereafter.

Haryana later leveled the score when Jaspreet Kaur successfully converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute. Two minutes later Udita scored another goal for Haryana. Thereafter, Haryana stepped up the pace and found the target in the 51st and 54th minutes through Ramandeep Kaur and centre-forward Navneet Kaur scored two goals for Haryana in the 55th and 69th minutes.

Results:

Semi-final 1: Railways 10 (Roselin Dung Dung 5th, 36th; Jasjeet Kaur 8th, 17th, 43rd; Vandana Katariya 14th, 23rd; Sushila Chanu 37th; Deepika Thakur 50th and Ritu Rani 62nd) beat Uttar Pradesh (Pratibha Chaudhary 32nd).

Semi-final 2: Haryana 6( Jaspreet Kaur 39th; Udita 41st; Ramandeep Kaur 51st, 54th; Navneet Kaur 55th, 69th) beat Chandigarh 1 (Anu Bala 27th).