Sept 28: The rains stopped, but goals continued to rain with as many as 41 being scored in five matches on the second day of the Bank of Baroda 49th Senior National Women's Hockey Championship here today.While four of the five matches billed for the day were more or less pedestrian with the winners mesmerising their opponents with resounding margins, the match between the Chandigarh and Manipur injected some life into the dull day's proceedings as both the teams dished out some enterprising hockey, before the former wore down a spirited challenge from Manipur to troop out winners with a 2-0 verdict.The match between Chandigarh and Manipur came in as a whiff of fresh air as both played fast paced hockey and the exchanges were fairly even in the first half. There was plenty of goalmouth action and both the goalkeepers Rosy (Chandigarh) and Rebika Devi (Manipur) had their hands full warding off the repeated threats from their rivals.Chandigarh came close to scoring in the 23rd minute, but Thaba Chanu ofManipur effected a goalline save off Bindu's shot, not before Tilotama Devi failed to connect a through pass from Sanggai Ibbemhal two minutes earlier.Though Chandigarh forged ahead in the 40th minute when Sunita Dalal, did well to get rid of three defenders to place the ball to the left of Rebika for the first goal, Manipur played their heart out despite the reverse. But Chandigarh sealed their fate with a last minute goal through Nishi, to come of with flying colours.Earlier, in Pool E, Punjab opened their campaign outplaying a lowly Pondicherry scoring as many as 17 goals without reply while Delhi routed Jammu and Kashmir by six goals.In Pool F Karnataka also gained full three points putting across Himachal Pradesh 10-1, after leading 5-1 at half time.In Pool B Rajasthan went out of reckoning for a berth in the knock out quarter-final suffering their second successive defeat. Vidarbha outplayed them 5-0,up by four goals at halftime. Vidarbha, who were walloped by Uttar Pradesh yesterday, haveone win and one loss and they have to play Tamil Nadu.Punjab's total dominance of the match was capped by a fine hat-trick by Preetinder who scored in the ninth, tenth and 12th minutes and rounded off her dominance with her fourth goal in the 68th minute. Punjab rained goals after captain Amandeep Kaur (Sr) opened the account two minutes into the match. Monika (3), Sarabjit Kaur (3), Sumitra Minz (2), Rajwinder (1), Sneha Bala (1), Harwinder Kaur (1) and Neelam Kumari (1) were the other scorers for punjab.Delhi's win over Jammu & Kashmir was also capped by a hat-trick by Sushila.This was after Pooja and captain Saritha, who converted a penalty corner, gave them a 2-0 lead. Neelam completed the tally midway in the second half.Karnataka allowed Himachal Pradesh to equalise after Rohini put them in the lead nine minutes into the match with a field goal. Neeta earned the equaliser for Himachal.But thereafter, Karnataka girls gave no quarter to their rivals. Rohini set the ball rolling againconverting a penalty corner in the 23rd. Then Kumari, Rohini, Christy Elena, Swetha and Kusuma who took the field, allowing the second goal-keeper Pavithra some match practice, as it were, completed the tally for karnataka.Rajasthan girls put up another pathetic show after their drubbing at the hands of hosts Tamil Nadu yesterday. The Vidarbha girls combined far better and got their goals through Sukhdevi Sandiya, Anu Bekla, Sakuntala Khobragade, Neelima Madhae and Kalpana Nekeere.ResultsPool B: Vidarbha 5 (Sukantala 2, Sukhdevi, Anu Bekla, Kalpana) bt Rajasthan 0Pool C: Chandigarh 2 (Sumita Lal, Nishi) bt Manipur 0Pool E: Punjab 17 (Preetinder 4, Monika 3, Sarabjeet 3, Sumitra 2, Rajwinder, Neelam, Amandeep, Sneh Bala, Merwinder 1 goal each) bt Pondicherry 0. Delhi 6 (Sushila 3, Sarita, Pooja, Sweta 1 goal each) bt Jammu & Kashmir 0Pool F: Karnataka 10 (Rohini 5, Christy Elena 2, Manjula, Kumari, Kusuma one goal each) bt Himachal Pradesh 1 (Neeta)
