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Hockey
By Kirti Patil
Air India's H. Smiley (right), who scored 7 goals for her team goes for a reverse hit while Rajasthan's Amandeep Barara tries to stop her in the 52nd senior women's National hockey championship in Lucknow on Saturday.
Strikers H. Smiley and B. Anjela outsmarted the Rajasthan defence scoring seven and five goals respectively, in a Pool B league match. Air India, the four-time National runner-up, is the seeded team in the pool, but its task of qualifying for the quarterfinals had a hurdle in a shape of an energetic and enterprising Uttar Pradesh. The host has won its two league matches with overwhelming margins, while Air India played its first match only on Saturday. Air India is slated to meet Himachal Pradesh on Sunday before it faces U.P. in an all-important clash on Tuesday. Even though Smiley may have scored more goals, it was Anjela and mid-fielder E. Pramila who made all the difference. The two, assisted by Mridula Kesarwani and Priya Singh, organised a series of raids after having kept quiet for the first quarter of an hour. Anjela made the opening for Air India in the 14th minute before the quartet schemed the strikes helping Smiley score a hat-trick. In the 28th minute, Mridula made a remarkable move from the left flank which saw the ball changing three sticks before she herself slammed it home. Mridula rushed in from the centre and crossed the ball to Smiley, who moved up into the semi-circle but found herself crowded by the defenders. She cleared the ball for Priya who spotted an unmarked Mridula on her left. Despite having received a battering from U.P. in its opening match, the Rajasthan defenders looked as pedestrian as they were. Only the goalkeeper, Pratima , seemed to have improved a bit. But for her saves, Air India would have won by at least 10 more goals. Though Air India seemed at ease in field work, it should ponder over the series of missed penalty corners. It squandered 15 penalty corners before the 16th was converted by Savita. Maybe there was a lack of coordination, but surely the idea of the stopper herself going for the hit proved futile. Four more goals came from penalty corner conversions as Air India underlined its domination.
Jharkhand beats PEPSU
Jharkhand, the National Games runner-up, salvaged some pride with a 4-1 beating of PEPSU, in a pool `G' league match. K. Neelima and T. Pushpa struck a brace each to give Jharkhand its first win from two matches. In its opening match, against Karnataka, Jharkhand was held to a 1-1 draw. Another draw, Saturday's match did look headed for such a result, would have put Jharkhand in deep trouble. Now Karnataka will have to win against PEPSU by more than a four-goal margin to make it to the quarterfinals. Neelima had drawn first blood, in the seventh minute, but PEPSU recovered well. Not only the team from the former princely empires of Patiala State dominated much of the last 25 minutes of the first half, it scored an equaliser to give an interesting twist to the match. Harbinder had scored in the 45th minute leaving the pool wide open. Then two yellow cards were handed to PEPSU, making it easy for Jharkhand. Sarbjot Kaur and Harbinder were sent out for stick abuse. With 11 players against nine, Jharkhand was clearly on top. Pushpa helped herself to two goals for a hard-fought 4-1 win. The results (league): Pool A: Bhopal 1 (Sangita) beat Chhattisgarh 0. Pool B: Air India 20 (H. Smiley 7, Anjela 5, E. Pramila4, K. Mridula 2, Agnecia Lugun, S. Savita) beat Rajasthan 0. Pool E: Mumbai 9 (K. Sushma, Poonam Surin and D. Jyotri 2 each, G. Manorama, S. Pavhina, B.M. Geeta) beat Vidarbha 0. Pool G: Jharkhand 4 (K. Neelima and T. Pushpa 2 each) beat PEPSU 1 (Harbinder). Pool H: Kerala 4 (V. Vineetha 2, T. Indhu, V.C. Vidhya) beat Maharashtra 0.
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