The hockey players of Jharkhand made their presence felt at the national level in a big way this weekend.
The state’s senior women’s team participating in the 12th Hockey India senior women national championship in Bhopal thrashed their Puducherry counterparts by a huge margin of 36 goals on Saturday.
Following this, the boys' team registered a victory against Gujarat by 20 goals in sub-junior men national championship in Goa on Sunday.
While both the teams of Jharkhand rained goals, their opponents, in the both the matches, failed to score even a single goal against them.
In Bhopal, the senior women of Jharkhand scored a goal in less than every two minutes on an average and scored 18 goals in each of the two halves of the match on Saturday.
Jharkhand sub-junior men’s team members posing after their win against Gujarat in Goa on Sunday. The Telegraph
While Betan Dungdung struck the opponent’s goal 10 times during the match, Albela Rani did so 7 times and Pramila Soreng 5 times.
They were supported by Phulmani Bhengra who scored 4 goals, Adlene Bage and Roshni Dungdung (3 goals each), Roshni Soreng (2 goals) and Deepti Toppo and Nirali Kujur who scored one goal each.
Inspired by the performances of the senior women’s team of the state, the members of the sub-junior men’s team also did very well when they defeated the Gujarat team by 20-0 in Goa on Sunday.
Abhishek Tigga hit the ball into the opponent's goal 5 times that was the maximum score by any player during the match.
He was followed by Vishal Lakra who scored 4 goals, Amit Tirkey and Edison Minz who scored 3 and 2 goals respectively.
Amit Soreng, Abhishek Tirkey, Rohit Pradhan, Asim Ekka, Abhishek Kujur and Rohit Tirkey also helped increasing the lead of their team by scoring one goal each.
“Both the teams did very well,” said Hockey Jharkhand president Bholanath Singh, adding they expected the players to continue the tempo during rest of their matches.
“Some of the players like Betan who was ousted from Sports Authority of India’s Calcutta centre, allegedly because she was not serious towards the game, did extremely well,” opined Hockey Jharkhand vice-president Manoj Konbegi.
He also said he pinned hope on some of the sub-junior boys who, if pursued the game wholeheartedly, may even don the national jersey in future and keep the tradition of the state going.