CHANDIGARH, Oct 4: A lot of thrills, frills and spills were witnessed in the final of the 29th All India Gurmit Memorial hockey tournament at the worn-out and slippery astroturf of Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here today. Trailing 1-2 till the 63rd minute, star-sprinkled Air India from Mumbai struck two goals with a span of five minutes to end the aspirations of Border Security Force to regain the trophy after long 18 years. The Mumbai team regained the trophy after five years with a 3-2 verdict.P Bopanna (Air India), N Kullu (BSF), Jatinder Kumar (Chandigarh) and Navdeep (Chandigarh) were adjudged the best goalkeeper, the fullback, the best half and the best forward, respectively. Indo-Tibetan Border Police were awarded the best disciplined team of the tournament.Punjab Director General of Police Sarabjit Singh distributed the trophies and utility prizes.With foothold virtually difficult, a number of players had fall and few of them also received injuries in the process. It may be recalled that Border Security Force left half Satnam Singh collided with another player in their quarter-final match. He is yet to fully recover and had to miss the remaining matches.Today, BSF's Peter Tirkey and Air India's Devinder Singh suffered injuries. Tirkey injured his mouth and Devinder Singh sustained injury on his right shoulder. Air India's ace forward Gagan Ajit Singh also suffered minor injury today.The final was marred by unnecessary protest from the Border Security Force players against a penalty stroke award in the 33rd minute. A rising but not dangerous ball was stopped by BSF fullback Naiman Kuller with his body. International umpire Shakeel Qureshi awarded the stroke. The securitymen protested mildly. Gagan Ajit Singh, who later muffed a number of chances while trying for reverse shots, converted the stroke to give Air India the lead. BSF goalkeeper Sarabjit Kumar immediately rushed to the umpire protesting that he was not `ready' before Gagan took the stroke. As Sarabjit continued to argue and challenge the umpire's decision, Qureshi rightly showed him a green card.After change of ends, Border Security Force, the joint winners with Punjab State Electricity Board in 1981, were an inspired lot. They fought with renewed vigour. Within one minute after resumption, they neutralised the lead. After Habib Topno's shot was padded by Air India goalkeeper Bopanna, Marinus Lakra pounced on the rebound to score.Immediately the securitymen had two more chances to score. After Narinder's cross from the right went abegging in the 37th minute, Air India goalkeeper Bopanna advanced and jumped to check Habib Topno's sizzling shot on the run.Maintaining their relentless pressure, Border Security Force forged ahead in the 47th minute when Sushil Kumar converted a penalty stroke. The stroke was given after penalty-corner shot by Naiman Kuller was stopped by Madan Vishwanath with his foot.Thereafter, Air India suddenly sprang into action again and levelled the score when speedy Edward Arahana converted a penalty corner in the 63rd minute. Two minutes before the final hooter, Deepak Thakur snatched the match-winner for Air India with a well-executed reverse shot.
