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Champions Training Centre (CTC) emerged victorious in a thrilling final to clinch the inaugural Balram Krishna Mohite Memoria hockey title, defeating United Bandra Sports Club (UBSC) 5-3 via tie-breaker at the Mumbai Hockey Association Ltd ground in Churchgate on Saturday.
UBSC made a strong start and broke the deadlock in the 16th minute through forward Pranit Naik, who converted a well-worked penalty corner with a precise low strike into the bottom right corner.
In the second half, CTC emerged with renewed energy and found the equaliser in the 30th minute. Pratham Deshmukh converted a penalty corner, beating UBSC custodian Gajendra Chauhan. Building on the momentum, CTC took the lead 10 minutes later when Aditya Kabre produced a fine reverse hit from the right to make it 2-1.
With time running out, UBSC showed great fighting spirit. In the last few minutes of regulation time, Maurya Kumar (48th minute) converted a penalty corner to level the scores at 2-2 and enforce a tie-breaker.
In the shootout, CTC’s Aditya Walmiki, Kabre and Gavin Rao successfully converted their attempts. For UBSC, only Naik managed to score.
Earlier, in the third-place playoff, Republican Sports Club beat Artic Boys 2-0 with Ambika Singh and Danroy Fonseca scoring a goal each.
India hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay was the chief guest and gave away the prizes.
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