In an intensely contested match between Karnataka and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) from Orissa,Karnataka won 3-1 on Tuesday in boys semi-final match in the 35th Junior (under-20) National Hockey Championship. Organised by the Pune District Hockey Association (PDHA) in association with the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corportaion (PCMC),under the auspices of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF),the match was held at Major Dhyanchand polygrass ground,Pimpri-Chinchwad,Nehrunagar. Adopting an attacking style of play,the Orissa outfit showed better coordination,understanding and had the better of the exchanges. But they undid all the good work which they had done in the match and throughout the competition when the committed some foolish mistakes which resulted in two of their players receiving yellow cards in the final four minutes. After Karnataka captain S K Uthappa tapped in a rebound from SAIL goalkeeper Prashats pads in the 63rd minute to wipe out the deficit,M G Poonacha (68th) and Uthappa (69th) scored a goal each to troop out worthy winners. Earlier in a girls semi-final match played in the morning,Haryana blanked Uttar Pradesh 3-0 to progress to the final. Raman scored a brace while Jaspreet got the third. For Haryana,Raman found the target twice and Jaspreet got the other to seal the fate of Uttar Pradesh. In Wednesdays final,Haryana will face Chandigarh,who got the better of Punjab 4-3 via the tie-breaker after the two were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation 70 minutes of play. Semi-final results Girls: Haryana 3 (Raman 2,Jaspreeth) bt Utttar Pradesh 0. Chandigarh 4 (Shivani 3,Jyothi Pandey) bt Punjab 3 (Ramdeep Kaur,Sandeep Kaur,Sonia Khanna) via the tie-breaker. Full-time: 2-2. Boys: Karnataka 3 (S K Uthappa 2 - 63rd,69th,Poonacha M G 68th) bt SAIL 1 (Mikhail Barla 42nd).
