Senior Women's Hockey C'ship: Madhya Bharat beat Puducherry 4-1

Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], Jan 31 (ANI): Madhya Bharat beat Puducherry 4-1 in their Pool A clash to register their second win

of the 8th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2018 (B Division) here on Wednesday.

With the win, Madhya Pradesh finished on the third spot in the Pool while the loss for Puducherry kept them at the bottom as they finish win-less from their four matches.

The match saw Hockey Madhya Bharat score thrice in the opening 40 minutes to take a strong lead and did well to wrap up a 4-1 win over Hockey Puducherry who scored their only goal in the last quarter as R Agilandeeswari found the back of the net in the 57th minute. Goals for Hockey Madhya Bharat were scored Kratika Chandra (9'), Khushbu Sisodiya (17'), Sonam Rajak (40') and skipper Puja Kumari (59').

In the last Pool A match of the competition, Steel Plant Sports Board registered their third victory from four matches to top the Pool with a tally of 10 points, edging Hockey Bihar on goal difference. Steel Plant Sports Board continued their fine form as they beat Telangana Hockey by a margin of 7-1 in a match which saw them strike in only the 3rd minute. The goal-scoring spree for Steel Plant Sports Board continued throughout the four quarters as they scored three goals each in the first three quarters and backed them up with four goals in the last quarter. Skipper Shikha Sharma (3', 46'), Prabhjot Kaur (37', 50'), Chanda Singh (20'), Veero (52') and Jyoti Rani (60') were the goal-scorers for Steel Plant Sports Board.

In Pool B, Chandigarh humbled Gujarat 13-0 to secure a third victory which sees them finish the Pool stages at the second spot with a tally of nine points while Hockey Gujarat remain at the bottom as they were unable to accumulate even a single point. Chandigarh scored a goal in the 12th minute to take the lead and backed that up with five goals each in the second and third quarters to take an impressive 11-0 lead. Hockey Chandigarh added two more goals to their tally in the last quarter to secure a 13-0 win in which the goals were contributed by Monika (27', 29', 32', 42', 44'), Sarabdeep Singh (24', 33', 47'), Manju (12', 37'), Shalu Mann (19'), Harmanpreet Kaur (28') and Anshul (56').

In the last Pool B match of the competition, Uttarakhand registered their second win in four matches as they defeated Andhra Pradesh 5-3 in an entertaining display from both the teams. The win sees Uttarakhand finish the Pool stages with a tally of six points while Andhra Pradesh end up with three points.

The match saw Uttarakhand score twice in the opening quarter to take a 2-0 lead. Andhra Pradesh conceded a goal each in the second and third quarters to go 0-4 behind, but they made a comeback in the fourth quarter to score thrice in six minutes to bring the scores to 3-4.

However, Uttarakhand stuck to their task well and scored a fifth goal in the 58th minute to secure a 5-3 win. Goals for Uttarakhand were scored by Amita Sharan (10', 33'), Manisha Chauhan (12', 58') and Jyoti Manral (17') while Jyothi Pilligoila (47', 53') and skipper Maheswari Balagonda (52') scored the goals for Andhra Pradesh.(ANI)