Jharkhand, Haryana in national women hockey semi-finals

Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), Feb 23:  Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh emerged victorious in their quarter-final matches of the 13th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship here on Thursday.

Jharkhand defeated Punjab 2-0 to secure a place in the last-four, with Alka Dungdung (48th) and Albela Rani Toppo (52nd) scoring late goals.

Haryana defeated Bengal 5-0 with Devika Sen (4th, 34th) and Amandeep Kaur (9th, 60th) scoring a brace each, while Monika Sihag scored in the 51st minute.

The match between Maharashtra and Odisha went down to the wire with the former defeating the defending champions 5-4 in penalty shootout.

Both teams had earlier scored a goal each in regulation time with Janhabi Pradhan (36th) scoring for Odisha and Ashwini Kolekar (37th) negating it for Maharashtra.

Madhya Pradesh thrashed Karnataka 6-0, with Diksha Tiwari (10th, 39th), Anjali Gautam (12th), Preeti Dubey (35th, 41st), and Aishwarya Chavan (53rd finding the target.

The semi-finals will be played on Saturday. (PTI)