Chhattisgarh beat host, enter semis

Vijayawada, Apr 19 (UNI) Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand today entered the semifinals defeating host Andhra Pradesh and SSCB respectively in the under-18 junior National Hockey Championship here.

Chhattisgarh were leading 1-0 at half time with Prince Yadav securing a goal in the 13th minute. Later Andhra Pradesh's Sandeep Raju equalised the score by scoring a goal in the 36th minute in the second session.

However, a goal in the 66th minute from Jameel helped Chhattisgarh to win the match 2-1.

The seven penalty corners awarded to Chhattisgarh and four to Andhra Pradesh went in vain.

In another match, Jharkhand beat SSCB 5-2, in the tie-break after both teams' score stood at one all after the full time.

SSCB captain Md Riyazuddin took the lead in the first session of the match by converting a penalty corner in 14th minute and Praveen top number of Jharkhand levelled the score in the 37th minute.

Anil Nag, Jhaman Dhan, Roshan and Chaman scored one goal each for Jharkand in the tie-break, while Prarodh Bara scored a goal for SSCB whereas Riyazuddin and Chandan missed their targets.

Six penalty corners awarded to Jharkand and five to SSCB went in vain.

In another quarter final match, SAIL outplayed Namdhari 2-0, while Combined SAI trounced Orissa 1-0 to enter the last four.

Deepak Lakra of SAIL scored the first goal of the match by converting a penalty corner awarded in the 11th minute. Later, Birendra Lakra scored the second goal in the 29th minute to gain upper hand in the match.

Namdhari team could not capitalise the two penalty corners awarded to them in the second session to bounce back into the game.

Though the match between Combined SAI and Orissa were locked 0-0 during the half time period, a goal by Munish Rana of Combined Sai in the 60th minute wrapped up the match in style.

Andhra Hockey Association (AHA) Secretary Niranjan Reddy told UNI that tomorrow would be a rest day and the semi finals would be played on April 21.

UNI