Mumbai slum 17 in romp into quarters

Mumbai slum 17 in romp into quarters
B David

JABALPUR, JANUARY 12: Champions Indian Railways, hot contenders Haryana and former champions Mumbai entered the quarter-finals with wins over lowly-rated teams on the third day of the 50th Senior National Hockey championship for women on Wednesday.

In other league matches, Orissa began their campaign on an impressive note, scoring a dozen against underdogs Vidarbha while Tamil Nadu recovered from their defeat against Bihar on Tuesday, to post a convincing 6-0 victory over Bhopal with all the goals coming in the first session.

In an inconsequential outing, Mahakoshal ousted Andhra Pradesh 7-1, but the Southern team had the satisfaction of scoring a goal, the only goal thus far by a losing team as the event continued to dish out lop-sided matches for the third day running.

Railways, with 15 Indian players in their ranks, looked rusty but still sparkled in phases to pump in 11 goals. However, their defence looked vulnerable on the bouncy grass court and Pepsu did take a close look at the rival goal, but Tingogleima Chanu was too good.

Mamta opens firing: Mamta Kharab of Bombay unleashed a barrage of goals against West Bengal scoring nine of the side's 17 goals. Ably assisting her was the talented striker from Manipur, Shanghai Chanu, who accounted for five while the rest were shared by BM Geetha, Poonam Surin and G Manorama. However, Bombay's set-piece drill left a lot to be desired as they converted only two out of the 13 they earned.

The selectors are expected to arrive here by Saturday to assess the talent and to pick the Indian probables for the Milton Keynes qualifying tournament for Sydney Olympics.

Results

Haryana 10 (Surinder Kaur 3, Rekha Rani 2, Gurpreet Kaur 2, Simarjeet Kaur, Balwinder Kaur, Meenakshi) bt Maharashtra 0; Railways 11 (Suraj Latha Devi 2, Pritam Rani Siwach 2, Maninder Kaur 2, Sandeep Kaur, Jyoti Kullu, Kamla Dalal, Sunita Dalal, Kiran Bala) bt Pepsu 0. Orissa 12 (Anjana Dhrua 6, Pratima Tirkey 2, Sarita Ekka 2, Annarita Kerketta, Ejren Dadel) bt Vidarbha 0; Tamil Nadu 6 (E Sumithra 2, Mecklish, Kousalya, Selin Mary, Simi Jacob) bt Bhopal 0; Mumbai 17 (Mamta Kharab 9, Shanghai Chanu 5, BM Geetha, Poonam Sarin, G Manorama) bt West Bengal 0.