Women Hockey at the 34th National Games: Day 7 Highlights
On February 21, in the women hockey preliminary round, two matches were played and both ended up in a draw. The first match was played between Delhi and Maharashtra (3-3) and the other was played between two out-shiners Haryana and Jharkhand (2-2).
In the first match, the opening half was dominated by Delhi. However, Maharashtra gave the match a grand opening by scoring a goal in the first two minutes of the match. This goal was earned by Maharashtra's striker, Harshala Mangutk who opened the scoring
with a lead by 1-0.
This attack was very soon responded by the Delhi when their striker, Pooja slotted a goal in the fifth minute of the match, levelling the score 1-1.
In no time, Delhi found a chance to attain the lead when a penalty corner was awarded in the seventh minute of the first half. This penalty corner was explicitly played by the sensational team captain, Sangeeta, putting the score at 2-1 with a one-goal trail
for Maharashtra.
With eight minutes left on the clock for the first half to conclude, Maharashtra outfit finally managed to put the score to an equal when Sarika Malkhade delivered a fine goal in the 27th minute of the match, levelling the score at 2-2.
The Delhi squad got extremely revengeful as they answered back with goal for a lead within the next three minutes. This reprisal was performed by Pooja of Delhi’s hockey team acquiring the former lead of one goal back at 3-2. The efforts raised high, but
no more scores were made until the closing of the first half of the match.
However, the second match was a tough and combative fight amongst both the teams where more than 20 minutes went scoreless even after many attempts from both sides. Finally, Maharashtra succeeded to level up the score in the 57thminute of the
match, which was delivered by the talented Harshala Mangutk putting score at 3-3.
The rest of the fight went on dynamically, but both the defences were strong enough to over-shadow the opponent’s score attempts until the final whistle blew with the match declared as a draw at 3-3.
During the whole match, one yellow card was shown to Delhi’s Sushma Malik and was sent out of the ground for a few minutes.
The second match of the day was played by Haryana against the host team, Jharkhand. Most likely all the goals were attacks and their riposte with a very short time margin between the two.
The first goal was scored in the 20th minute of the match by Haryana’s Rampal Rani when a penalty corner was awarded to the team. Within the next three minutes, Jharkhand responded with a goal on the score-board, levelling the score to 1-1. This
goal was played by Jharkhand’s Subhadra Pradhan in the team’s first penalty corner.
In the second half, there was a silence of 18 minutes from both sides with no goals. Later, a score was hit by the Haryana’s Kaur Surinder in the 41st minute of the match giving the team a lead of one goal (2-1). It did not take much time for
Jharkhand to reply back, when Subhadra Pradhan re-emerged for the penalty corner, which they capitalised in the 53rd minute of the match and levelled the score at 2-2.
The remaining match had many highs and lows, but both the team could not give a shot to take the lead for a win and the match closed at a 2-2 score draw.
Haryana’s Ritu Rani was shown a yellow card for a foul played by her during the match.
The same day, men hockey matches in the preliminary round were played between Orissa versus Punjab and Jharkhand versus Services (SSCB).
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