Mysore, March 5 (IANS) It rained goals in the 4th Hockey India Junior Women National Championship as Manipur routed Tripura 24-0 in a pool A match of division B at the newly laid Astro-turf of Chamundi Vihar grounds here Wednesday.
For Manipur, it was Sarita Devi who led from the front and scored as many as nine goals. Right from the very first minute, Manipur women took control over the game. Tripura defence was not in a position to counter the attack of the opponents.
Gitrani Devi started the account at the second minute of the game and it was followed by the penalty corner which was converted into goal by Sarita. In the seventh minute it was again Sarita who scored another goal through a penalty corner.
Sonia Devi came back strong in the 9th minute and through a smart penetration managed to get the ball through goal keeper Nancy Agarwal. In the 12th minute and 17th minute Sarita scored back to back goals.
In the 20th minute and 22nd it was Bidyarani Devi and captain Geetharani Devi who added to the tally of goals. This was followed by an amazing goal in the very same minute which was converted by Bidya. The Manipur team had an excellent co-ordination amongst each other which helped them to keep the attack on the opponents. At half time by reaching the team managed to score 13 goals to 0.
In the second half, the story was no different for the spectators. Sarita, who continued her goal scoring spree on the opponents, was getting difficult to stop by the minute. Besides her it was even, Rojita Devi who scored four goals in matter of eight minutes (39th, 41st, 45th & 47th min). The convincing win gives Manipur three points on the points table.
In another match of pool A, Uttarakhand beat Vidarbha 7-0. Uttarakhand launched the attack from the very first minute and it took them only four minutes to convert the first chance that they got and this was scored by Pooja Bhatt.
Uttarakhand did not stop there and continued their attack and scored the second goal in the 11th minute by Karishma Nayak. The team continued putting pressure on the players of Vidarbha and before the end of first half they has successfully scored four goals and not allowing the opponents to score a single one.
In the second half the team came back strong but Vidarbha warded the attack well but they still could not stop Uttarakhand to add another three goals to the final tally of seven. Captain Anita Maletha added two goals within six minutes in the first half and the same was scored in the 27th and 33rd minute.
Anita Maletha, Pooja Bhatt and Karishma Nayak scored two goals each helping their team to have a convincing win in their first match of the tournament.
Results of the day:
Pool A Manipur 24 Sarita Devi (4, 12, 17, 30, 31, 36, 51, 58, 66 min), Gitarani Devi (2, 7, 22, 27, 32 min), Bidyarani (20, 22, 57 min), Rojita Devi (35, 41, 45, 47 min), Sonia Devi (9 min), Chaoba Chanu (49, 65 min) vs Tripura 0.
Pool A Uttarakhand 7 Pooja Bhatt (4, 50 min), Karishma Nayak (11, 61 min), Anita Maletha (27, 33 min), Mamta Bhatt (43 min) vs Vidarbha Hockey Association 0.