Defending champions Indian Railways defeated Uttar Pradesh 10-1 to enter the semi-finals of the second Hockey India Senior Women's National Championship at Aish Bagh Hockey Stadium here Sunday.
In the second quarterfinal, Navneet Kaur and Ramandeep Kaur scored twice each as Haryana raced to a 6-1 win against Chandigarh to enter the semi-finals.
Giving early breakthrough to the Railways were forwards Roselin Dung Dung and skipper Jasjeet Kaur, who opened the account scoring in the fifth and eighth minutes, respectively, which helped their team to build pressure on the opponents.
Skipper Jasjeet Kaur topped the scorers' list for Railways with three goals followed by Roselin Dung Dung (2), Vandana Katariya (2), Sushila Chanu (1), Deepika Thakur (1) and Ritu Rani (1) while the opponents only reply came through Pratibha Chaudhary.
"Considering the strength and composition of our team that had both experienced and young players, I am satisfied with our performance. We will try to do better in the semi-finals and then finals to retain the title," said Jasjeet.
In the other encounter, Chandigarh, who led 1-0 at the half time scored through Anu Bala in the 27th minute, struggled to find rhythm or flow in their remaining game.
Haryana got a good breakthrough and levelled the score when Jaspreet Kaur successfully converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute. Two minutes later Udita scored another goal for Haryana.
Thereafter Haryana stepped up the pace and found the target in the 51st and 54th minutes through Ramandeep Kaur. Centre forward Navneet Kaur scored two goals for Haryana in the 55th and 69th minutes.
Results:
Railways 10 (Roselin Dung Dung 5th, 36th; Jasjeet Kaur 8th, 17th, 43rd; Vandana Katariya 14th, 23rd; Sushila Chanu 37th; Deepika Thakur 50th and Ritu Rani 62nd) beat Uttar Pradesh (Pratibha Chaudhary 32nd)
Haryana 6 (Jaspreet Kaur 39th; Udita 41st; Ramandeep Kaur 51st, 54th; Navneet Kaur 55th, 69th) beat Chandigarh 1 (Anu Bala 27th).