Bangalore, May 30: Indian Railways found a hero in goalkeeper Ambuj Srivastava once again. Ambuj displayed excellent anticipation and agility to help Railways lift the Rangaswamy Cup for the 20th time when he saved a stroke in sudden death in the Punjab and Sind Bank 58th Senior National Hockey Championship at the Karnataka State Hockey Association Stadium here on Friday. Tamil Nadu lost 4-5.

Earlier, Air-India rallied brilliantly to defeat Bombay 3-2 for the bronze medal.

After a barren 70 minutes of regulation time, 15 minutes of extra time, too, failed to provide the golden goal and even the tie-breaker saw the teams tied 4-all.

In the sudden death, Railways began disastrously when Lazarus Barla shot wide. But Tamil Nadu skipper, Md Riaz, too, scooped out to bring the match back to life. Then Anmol Aind made no mistake for Railways and their custodian Ambuj Srivastava, who was later declared the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament, prevented Vasudevan of Tamil Nadu. He dived to his right to effect a brilliant save and trigger the celebrations in the Railway camp.

In the tiebreaker, L Senthil Kumar, Md Riaz, P Vasudevan and Kevin were successful for Tamil Nadu while Thirumalvalavan's attempt was blocked by Ambuj.

For the winners, Lazarus Ekka, Anmol Aind, Jagmohan Singh and Rajiv Mishra converted but Ajinderpal Singh fumbled.

For Tamil Nadu it was a tale of missed chances throughout the regulation time. They played brilliantly and combined well as a team but failed to beat the Railway defence which was manned by a stubborn Ashok Kumar, alert Lazarus Barla and Jagmohan Singh.

Tamil Nadu began in right earnest with Kevin entering the striking circle in the very first minute. But he took time to position himself and Ambuj charged out to make an effective clearance.

A few minutes later, Marianos Ekka dribbled down the middle and gave an advance pass to Ajinderpal Singh in the circle. However, his feeble shot was cleared by Tamil Nadu's Dinesh Naik. This was the only worthwhile move by Railways in the first session and the trend continued till 20 minutes into the second half.

On the other hand, the South Zone champions bombed the Railway citadel time and again but found a Himalayan barrier in the the deep defence.

On a couple of occasions when they managed to cross it, they found Ambuj a tough customer to tackle in the goal. In the 15th minute he thwarted a Thirumalvalavan attempt and a few minutes later saved a stinging shot from Jagan Senthil.

Tamil Nadu almost surged ahead in the 22nd minute when Md Riaz, who controlled the game with intelligent scheming, took a free hit from the right flank and Thirumalvalavan trapped it perfectly in the goalmouth. But his well-timed sizzler was brilliantly fended away by Ambuj.

Tamil Nadu continued to dominate but their efforts failed to yield results. Minutes before the break, Kevin shot wide and Prabhakaran from the left sprayed a hurriedly-taken shot. Both of them combined well with Riaz feeding them regularly, but the goal seemed elusive.

After resumption, Tamil Nadu continued at a hectic pace. Midway through the second session, Railways reduced the pace of the game to turn the tide. With Railways mounting raid after raid in the last 15 minutes, Tamil Nadu fell back in numbers and defended. It must be said that the defence stood up to the task. L Senthilkumar and Dinesh Naik were ever alert and goalkeeper Natarajan was never tested. At least, till the tiebreaker.

Later, Md Riaz of Tamil Nadu was declared as the Best Player of the Tournament while Lazarus Barla was adjudged as the Most Promising Player of the meet.

Bombay finish fourth: In the losing semifinalists match, Air-India shot into the lead in the ninth minute through an indirect penalty conversion by Daryll D' Souza but Bombay found the equaliser five minutes later.

Latching on to a beautiful diagonal pass from Rajan Lakra, Sabu Varkey dribbled into the circle and with an onrushing goalkeeper, he gave a goalmouth square pass to Farooq Umer, who pushed home with no hiccups. Soon they took the lead with another superb Sabu Varkey field goal.

However, after resumption Air-India converted two penalty corners in the 38th and 44th minutes through Edward Aranha and Rajesh Chouhan respectively to take home the bronze.

Justice is colour blind

Vasudevan Bhaskaran, coach of the Indian Railways, which bagged the Rangaswamy Cup for the National Hockey Championship, today expressed disappointment over the way centre-half Kuldip was denied the chance to play in the final match of the tournament.

``Rules of hockey seem to be different here than in international tournaments,'' Bhaskaran remarked. ``Railways won against all odds,'' he said in a loaded statement.

Bhaskaran, also the National team coach, claimed that barely five minutes before the start of the match, he was informed that Kuldip could not be fielded, as he had five green cards and a yellow too.

In similar situations during international tournaments, the player concerned would be allowed to play in the final, he asserted and pointed out that Pargat Singh was permitted to play in the final of the Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia in 1995.

The coach was also unhappy that his appeal to the convenor of jury of appeals, K Jothikumaran, also the secretary-general of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), was turned down while no reasons were given. If the team won despite `the odds,' it was purely due to team spirit, he added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.