BSF stroke out W Rly in final

NEW DELHI, December 29: Border Security Force (BSF) stroked out Western Railway (Mumbai) 7-6 via sudden-death tie-breaker to win the 19th...

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NEW DELHI, December 29: Border Security Force (BSF) stroked out Western Railway (Mumbai) 7-6 via sudden-death tie-breaker to win the 19th Servo Sanjay Gandhi hockey tournament at the National Stadium here today.

In the final, marred by rough play and poor umpiring, Western Railway led 1-0 at the breather. The Mumbai team enjoyed domination in the first session but the security men hit back in the second in the fast-paced encounter.

The team’s weakness to convert penalty corners was exposed as BSF and Western Railway who earned eight and six penalty corners, respectively, but could convert only one each. Western Railway surged ahead in the 34th minute when Shanta Kumar scored off the fourth penalty corner through indirect conversion.

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BSF, winners of this year’s Beighton Cup, Nehru Cup and Surjit Cup rallied strongly after the interval and equalised in the 52nd minute when their skipper Harbhajan scored off the seventh penalty corner. Before the equaliser, Harbhajan was involved in a brawl with umpire and he virtually manhandled the official. However, to the surprise of all the umpire did not show the BSF skipper any card and let him go scot free.

As both the teams were levelled 1-1 at the end of regulation period, tie-breaker was applied. In the first five strokes, Chanderpal, Mukhtiar, Shanta Kumar converted for the Railways while Deepak Gupta and Gursewak Singh failed. For BSF, Sushil Kumar, Shinu Herenz and Harbhajan were on the target. Peter Tirkey and W.Bismabir Singh muffed their strokes.

With both teams converting three strokes each, sudden-death tie-breaker was applied. Chander Pal and Mukhtiar scored for Railways while Deepak Gupta again missed and that proved costly for them. Sushil Kumar, Shinu Herenz and Harbhajan were on the target for the winners.