Haryana’s NCC team wins the 27th Nehru Girls Hockey Tournament, take home cash reward of INR 1.5 lakh

Haryana’s Directorate General National Cadet Corps (NCC) team won 6-2 against Guru Jambeshwar Senior Secondary School, Hisar (Haryana). The win helped them emerge victorious at the 27th Nehru Girls U17 Hockey Tournament. The tournament ended on Wednesday at the Shivaji Hockey Stadium.

Pritam Siwach, the NCC team coach, said the key to success was combined training over the past three months despite the pandemic.

“Good practice sessions despite pandemic enabled the NCC team to win the Nehru Girls Hockey Tournament. Since all the girls stay within a short-distance of 2km from the playing field in Sonepat, Haryana, it gave them an opportunity to polish their individual skills and build up team strategy as well for the competition,” reveals Pritam.

For their hard work, the NCC team received a cash award of INR 1.5 lakh. Members of the winning team have enrolled themselves for the NCC wing of Haryana, said the team coach. According to Pritam, it has a dual advantage. It builds up confidence and the girls also receive a monthly stipend of INR 150 as diet money.

“For the Nehru Hockey Tournament, the girls received a monthly stipend of Rs 150 for three months from the NCC wing of Haryana. Since the majority of the girls in the team are from humble backgrounds, their parents do odd jobs, monthly stipend given by NCC office was a big support,” explains Pritam.

NCC dominated the match from the get-go

The eventual winners shot into the lead in the opening four minutes of the contest through Tamanna Yadav. Three minutes later Tannu made it 2-0. Hisar's team came back in the 11th minute to reduce the margin to 1-2 through Bhateri.

Saavi scored the second goal in the 25th minute for Hisar's team. Thereafter, the NCC team dominated the contest and pumped in three more goals to walk away with the day's honor.

Sakshi Rana (13th, 38th, 50th) and Nidhi (28th) were the other goal scorer for the winning team.