SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 12: Title favourite Jharkhand girls team routed Delhi 12-0 in the second semifinal and entered the hockey event final of School Games Federation of India (SGFI) being played at Pullela Popichandra Madhya Pradesh Sports Academy, Gwalior in the morning today.
Jharkhand team was leading 5-0 till the second quarter and increased the goal tally to 12 in the next two quarters to book the berth for the final. In the last quarter, Jharkhand players looked devastating and scored five goals. Earlier in the quarterfinal Jharkhand team had defeated Karnataka 10-2 in a one-sided affair.
Now Jharkhand would play host Madhya Pradesh in the final to be played in the evening during the closing ceremony of the SGFI national championship.
After the completion of the semifinal match, Jharkhand hockey team chief coach Deepak Kumar Mehta and assistant Coach Rakesh Roshan Tigga giving this information from Gwalior said the state team completely dominated the game right from the start till the end and outclassed the rival team in every department.
“ Through their superb skills, stamina, coordination and outstanding dribbling techniques our players kept control of the ball all 70 minutes and scored goals at their wish.”, said team coaches.
Parwati Topno was the highest scorer (three goals) for the team followed by Anupriya Soren, Purnima Berwa, Rajni Kerketta and Pinki Kumari hit two goals each while Binima Dhan netted one goal.
Anupriya Soren opened the account for Jharkhand within three minutes of starting and Parwati Topno increased the margin ( 2-0) before the Delhi girls settled in the field. Purnima Berwa scored the third goal for the team in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Jharkhand girls continued their dominance in the game and Purnima Berwa and Anupria Soren scored one goal each to increase the team’s lead to 5-0. In the third quarter, Binima Dhan and Pinki Kumari scored goals and increased the tally to 7-0.
In the last quarter, the Jharkhand girls looked formidable and hit five more goals. Parwati and Rajni scored two goals each while Pinki one.
Jharkhand team coach Emma Bara while hailing the performance of the girls said that the team would continue this display in the final too.
