Bhubaneswar: Pyari Xaxa netted thrice Tuesday as Orissa routed Jharkhand 7-1 to seal their quarterfinal berth in the Senior Women’s National Football Championships at Phagwara. They will next face Pondicherry, June 1 for a place in the semifinal.
The Jharkhand eves defended dourly with nine of them inside the penalty box. They crowded the ball out whenever the Orissa players threatened. However, Pyari broke the deadlock in the 35th minute and that helped Orissa a lot. The floodgates then opened as Jharkhand simply faded away from the game.
Pyari doubled the lead four minutes later with another fine piece of opportunism. Jharkhand rekindled some hope of a comeback when they got a goal back through Shradha Kumari just before half time.
In the second session, however, the Orissa eves completely destroyed the opposition scoring five goals. Jasmani Samad made the scoreline 3-1 in the 54th minute.
With Orissa eves constantly attacking Jharkhand conceded a self-goal to fall 1-4 behind. The situation turned even worse for Jharkhand when Sinulata Sahoo scored a minute later with a wonderful strike to make it 5-1 in favour of the Orissa side.
The game saw a perfect finish for the Orissa eves who scored two goals in three minutes. First Pyari completed her hat-trick in the 90th minute and then Arati Sethi completed the rout with an injury-time strike.
Debashis, Sidhant in joint 2nd position
Bhubaneswar: Orissa Grandmaster Debashis Das notched up a remarkable win over higher-ranked AI Muthaiah in the sixth round of the Xth KIIT International Chess Festival (Category-A) at KIIT University complex here, Tuesday.
He is now sharing the joint second position with statemate Sidhant Mohapatra who played out a stalemate with GM Reefat Bin-Sattar of Bangladesh. The two Orissa players along with 10 others have five points in their kitty.
Among other state players, Padmini Rout, Saina Salonika, Sekhar Chandra Sahu and Ansuman Samal scripted impressive wins over their respective sixth round opponents.
Padmini is tied fourth with four points after outplaying statemate Biswajit Nayak (three points). Saina got the better of Aan Sikka of India and is sharing the joint fifth position with Sekhar and Ansuman who defeated D Jishitha and Ritam Nag respectively. The trio has 3.5 points each in their kitty.
Bangladeshi Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman emerged sole leader with 5.5 points after the end of the sixth round. He defeated GM Sayantan Das (4.5 points).
Chess tourney
The Khurda District Chess Association will organise the Orissa State U-25 Chess Championships at the Swami Vivekananda Institute in Pokhriput here, June 3-5.
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