ME FIRST...Western Railway's Ganesh pillay (red jersey) tries to catch up with MVHA's Saby Naronha in the veteran's final at the St Andrew's ground on Sunday.

MUMBAI, August 15: Mahindras won the title, but it was the veteran's final that provided a treat for hockey aficionados on the occasion of India's 50 years of Independence.

The Freedom 50 Invitational Hockey tournament, organised by the Maharashtra Veteran's Hockey Association at the St Andrew's ground, Bandra, provided the veterans an opportunity to flaunt their skills and they did a good job of it.

For the record, MVHA Select won the veteran's final beating Western Railway 7-6 via the golden goal while Mahindras won the open final 4-2 beating Bombay Customs in a final which Mahindras dominated completely.

With Dhanraj Pillay in the Mahindra ranks, it was always going to be difficult for Customs. Dhanraj scored two splendid deflection goals while John Fernandes scored the two penalty stroke goals. A team gets a penalty stroke after it has earned three penalty corner `points'.

Mahindras had held a 4-1 lead. After they had opened the scoring through Dhanraj, Suresh Pereira scored the equaliser for Customs. Then the bustling forward line of Elton Menezes and BN Madan hustled the Customs defence into conceding six penalty corner points. Elton, in particular, was difficult to curb as the burly forward often found ways to slip past the defence and get the ball.

The veteran's final was class act. It was thrilling and MVHA Select won through a golden goal after the teams were tied 6-6 after full time. There was Mervyn Fernandes and Ramesh Pillay for the MVHA Select while the Western Railway outfit had the still energetic Ganesh Pillay, the amazing skills of Shiv Kumar and the delicacy of Shiv Dutt.

Western Railway and MVHA kept exchanging leads, and through the former showed their dominance, the latter's perservence paid rich dividends. Ganesh Pillay opened the scoring for Western Railway and Sunil Kumar made it 2-0 but MVHA pulled one back through Ramesh Pillay.

The action and the rate of scoring picked up after the break when both teams went on an overdrive. There was a stunning goal from Chandrashekar, whose shot hit the roof of the net while Mervyn Fernandes kept scoring at the other end through penalty strikes.

Sunil Kumar scored two more goals with Shiv Dutt added his touch to convert a pass. At the other end, Ronnie Patel, who came in as a substitute, scored the important fifth and the seventh goals. There were some brave saves from both keepers too. Wahid Khan of Western, playing without a helmet and bravely lunging for every ball, and his counterpart Abraham Thomas, adequately protected, nevetheless came out with a stunning save to thwart Ganesh Pillay with his reflex action.

Results: Open final: Mahindras 4 (John Fernandes 2, Dhanraj Pillay 2) bt Bombay Customs 2 (Suresh Pereira, Adolph Colaco); Veteran's final: MVHA Select 7 (Ramesh Pillay 3, Ronnie Patel 2, Mervyn Fernandes 2) bt Western Railway 6 (Sunil Kumar 3, Ganesh Pillay, Shiv Dutt, Chandrashekar)

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.