Chandigarh, Haryana in national junior women's hockey semis

Rai, Haryana - Haryana muscled past Odisha 6-1 here Tuesday to set up a semifinal clash with runners-up Jharkhand in the Hockey India Junior Women National Championship at Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai.

In the semi-finals to be played Thursday, defending champion Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy (MPHA) take on Chandigarh while last year’s runners-up Jharkhand will clash with hosts Haryana.

Navneet Kaur scored thrice as Haryana raced to victory in the fourth quarterfinal.

Haryana opened their account through a field goal scored by Navneet in the 15th minute. Odisha tried to reduce the margin in the 20th minute with the penalty corner successfully converted by Ambika Toppo.

Then, Haryana, who led 3-1 in the first half, scored two more goals through Jyoti Gupta in 23rd and Navjot Kaur in the 31st minute via a penalty corner.

In the other quarterfinal played earlier in the day, Chandigarh scored a hard-fought 5-3 win against Uttar Pradesh.

Chandigarh made an impressive start leading 4-2 in the first half. Own goal by Chandigarh helped Uttar Pradesh to take an early lead in the third minute but Chandigarh fought hard and levelled the score in the sixth minute through penalty corner converted by Pooja Rani.

For Chandigarh, Navdeep converted two penalty corners in three minutes taking lead the to 3-1. Karishma Singh scored another goal for Chandigarh through a direct pass from Hardeep Kaur in the 14th minute.

Uttar Pradesh tried to reduce the margin in the 22nd minute with the field goal scored by Pratibha Chaudhary. Both the teams tried to restrict each other in the second half but Chandigarh successfully converter the penalty corner opportunity in the 55th minute through Pooja Rani putting 5-2 on board.

Three minutes later Pratibha scored another goal for Uttar Pradesh through another penalty corner.

Quarterfinal results: Chandigarh 5 (Pooja Rani 2; Navdeep 2; Karishma Singh) beat Uttar Pradesh 3 (Own Goal; Pratibha Chaudhary 2); Haryana 6 (Navneet Kaur 2; Jyoti Gupta 2; Navjot Kaur) beat Odisha 1 (Ambika Toppo).