TIRUPATHI, JULY 21: Mighty Indian Railways played at half-pace and yet emerged easy 4-0 (2-0 half-time) winners against Bihar in their first match in Pool A of the Nutrine sixth Women's hockey Federation Cup at the SV Arts College grounds here on Wednesday.In a Pool B match earlier, Haryana were too good for Uttar Pradesh, recording a 3-1 win with all the goals coming in the first-half.In the morning, a rejuvenated Punjab toyed with hosts Andhra Pradesh before thrashing them by five goals without any reply in Pool A.Billed as the match of the day, the Railways-Bihar tie had life only for about 20 minutes. By that time, the Railways had established a 2-0 lead through goals by right-extreme Fardina Ekka.Receiving a pass from Manjinder Kaur, Fardina sounded the boards in the eighth minute. In the 10th minute, she snatched a long pass from Suraj Lata at left, wheeled around an advancing Bihar 'keeper Mundu and scored.The Railways had to wait till the 45th minute to add to their tally. This time, aKamala Dalal forward pass evaded Mundu and Pritam Siwach drove it hard into the empty net.Just three minutes from the end, Siwach deftly deflected from hand-shaking distance a long forward pass from Sita Gusain.Easy for Haryana: In the first match of the afternoon, Haryana dominated the first session. Saini Kiran Bala netted as early as in the third minute. It was 2-0 in the 21st minute when Surinder Kaur found the net. UP reduced the margin in five minutes through Sarita. In the very next minute, Saini Balwinder Kaur completed the tally for the winners.The second-half was fought more or less on equal terms, but no goal was forthcoming. UP have lost all their three matches of the pool and are out of the championship.Punjab triumph: The lackadaisical approach of the AP girls itself was a poor exhibition of their wares against the determined Punjab who went into serious business right from the start.The ace of the Punjab pack was, undoubtedly, Mohan Dawinder Kaur who added a littleopportunism to her hard work while scoring three of the team's five goals. She had excellent rapport with defender Kawaljit Kaur who supplied her with good number of passes for the unrelenting raids through right wing.Punjab opened the tally in the eighth minute following a penalty corner taken by Harwinder Kaur. Monica Rana stopped it for Jyoti Minhas to shoot. The ball rebounded from AP keeper C Haseena for Arminderpal Kaur to crack into the goal.Arminderpal scored again in the 45th minute. She lunged forward to deflect a long pass from Monica Rana who had coolly trapped a centre from Kawaljit at right.Dawinder added two quick goals in the 23rd and 28th minutes. First she deflected in a neat pass from Minhas and then nicely flicked another accurate pass from Harwinder. She rounded off the tally in the 61st minute with yet another deflection off captain Rajwinder Kaur.Thursday's matches: Bihar vs AP (7.30 am), Railways vs Punjab (2.30 pm) and Bombay vs Orissa (4 pm).
