31 August : Haryana has defended the National Sub-junior Girls Hockey Championship title spanking Jharkhand 8-0 at the Biju Patnaik hockey stadium in Rourkela on Sunday. In a completely one sided final played on the astro-turf, the defending champions stumped their authority from the very beginning of the match.
Rani gave an early lead to Haryana scoring a field goal in the sixth minute.During the interval the winners were leading 3-0.Rani scored four goals including a penalty in the 38th minute.
Jharkhand players were left clueless before the well-organised attacks by Haryana forwards. Though Jharkhand got two chances off penalty corners, they failed to capitalise on those.
Earlier, hosts Orissa secured third place in the tourney defeating Uttar Pradesh 4-2.Poonam Barla scored Orissa’s first goal in the very first minute, while Sushila Ekka netted the ball twice and Nilima Minz scored one goal.
Uttar Pradesh’s Kavita More and Shruti Singh scored one goal each.Altogether 25 teams participated in the tournament, which was organised by Orissa Women Hockey Association.