Railway Sports Promotion Board beat Indian Navy to lift SNBP-Nehru Seniors Hockey Trophy

New Delhi: In a final that rose to great heights, Railway Sports Promotion Board sank Indian Navy 3-2 to lift the glittering SNBP Nehru Gold Cup.

An impressive crowd at the Shivaji Stadium on Tuesday afternoon was treated to a fast-paced encounter that could have gone either way till the long gong.

For Railway Sports Board, it was sweet revenge for their last Pool D match defeat two days ago at the hands of Navy. .

The Railways team that had grounded Indian Air Force 3-0 in their last four match on Monday, continued their dream run by leading 3-1 at the end of third quarter.

Their mainstay were Pratap Lakra, whose brace was the highlight of the match, alongside Shesha Gowda, Mukul Sharma, Lovepreet and Rajbeer.

Hardworking captain Jasjit too had a role in their victory.

Indian Navy was brilliant in patches. But for close misses by their evergreen player Pawan Rajbhar and a sitter by Selvaraj the scoreline may have been different.

Action from the Nehru Seniors Hockey final 

The Railways team went up in the fifth minute when a brilliant Lovepreet pass was deflected by Rajbeer Singh into Navy goal beating Sanjay Bhaskar under the bar hands down.

Navy restored parity towards the end of first half when Sundra Pandey fed Rajat Minz to do the rest (1-1).

For Navy, Nitesh,  Selvaraj and Rajbhar missed chances galore that would have given them lead. Towards the end of the quarter Pratap Lakra made the most of a goalmouth skirmish to put Railways up again.

Immediately after the half time, a solo dash by Atuldeep for the Railways resulted in a penalty stroke when he was tackled the wrong way in front of the goal.

Indian Navy's Sushil Dhanwar receives Player of the Tournament Award

Pratap Lakra made no mistake by scooping home the ball. Just before the stroke Mukul Sharma and Lovepreet had made close calls for Railways.

In the closing minutes K Selvaraj made amends for his earlier lapses encashing skipper Aakib Rahim's  interestingly run on the flank (2-3).

Navy's Sushil Dhanwar was declared Player of the Tournament and was given Rs 25,000 and a Lava mobile.

Defender Jasjit Singh, the Railways captain, and Pawan Rajbhar, the Navy midfielder, were also given similar awards of Rs 25,000 and a Lava mobile. Deepak Joshi was named the umpire of the tournament.

The winners, apart from the trophy, got Rs 3 lakh while the runners-up bagged Rs 2 lakh besides the trophy.

Tags : Indian Navy, Railways, Hockey, New Delhi, Lava mobile