Hockey: Pritam Rani takes Haryana to gold

By Kirti Patil

LUDHIANA, NOV. 27. As if her future was at stake, former India captain Pritam Rani Siwach dished out several attacking moves, reminiscent of her best years, and helped Haryana win the National Games women's hockey gold here on Tuesday.

Bouyed by the news of her inclusion in the National camp for the coming international season, Pritam took control of the situation rendering the famed Maharashtra forwardline stingless.

With Pritam in a rampaging mood and mercurial striker Surinder Kaur in her best touch, Haryana outclassed the defending champion 2-0 in the final played at the Punjab Agricultural Univeristy (PAU) turf.

Playing in front of a capacity crowd, Maharashtra realised that it was without any supporters. Also, the law of averages caught up with the all-conquering Maharashtra.

``We had very keenly watched Maharashtra's play and decided to go all out against them,'' said a beaming Pritam.

Internationals Pakpi Devi, Sanghai Ibemhal Chanu and Mamta Kharab, who were the toast of every Maharashtra win, could not understand what hit them. Any move the trio attempted, was foiled by the Haryana defenders, Suman Bala, Gurpreet Kaur and Sita Gussian.

Haryana, meanwhile, did not leave the hard work for the later stages. And, that proved handy for it as Maharashtra struggled throughout the second half.

``It seems that the loss against Jharkhand was a good omen for us. It gave us the kick, much before the crucial match and we were ready for the final,'' Pritam summed up.

With the match into the sixth minute, Pritam made a solo move and Haryana was awarded a penalty corner after the striker was fouled. Playing to the plan, Haryana made no mistake on its first opportunity and Suman Bala hit a stinging drive into the woodwork.

Even as an over-aggressive Surinder Kaur was shown the yellow card and sent out, Maharashtra failed to take advantage. Haryana was reduced to 10 women but, it held on nicely.

While Sanghai Chanu was heavily marked, Mamta and Pakpi got a few chances to invade but all their moves came to nought. It was a sorry sight that a team, which possessed nine players selected for the national camp starting in Babgalore on December 3, play such an unimaginative game. Haryana was so dominating that Maharashtra could earn just one penalty corner as against eight by the rival.

Pritam deflected an indirect hit taken by Sita Gussain off a penalty corner, though it seemed that Sita had hit a clean shot. With this goal, Pritam became the top scorer of the competition with nine goals. She was followed by Chandigarh's Prakash Choudhary (8) and Sanghai Chanu (7), in the second and third position respectively.

Punjab takes bronze

Even as Haryana became National Games titlist for the first time, Punjab fought hard against Chandigarh for a 4-2 win, in the match for the bronze medal. International Jyoti Sunita Kullu was in her elements, effecting three goals in Punjab's win.

If the loss against Haryana in the semifinal on Monday was the most frustrating moment, the third-place play-off against Chandigarh was even more vital - from the organisers' point of view.

The results: Final: Haryana 2 (Suman Bala, Pritam Rani Siwach) beat Maharashtra 0.

Third-place playoff: Punjab 4 (Jyoti Sunita Kullu 3, Amandeep Kaur Sr.) beat Chandigarh 2 (Saba Anjum 2).

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