The Champion Bureaucrat XI team with the cup

Bhubaneswar: Bureaucrat XI emerged as the champion in the 12th edition of Tata Steel Friendship Cup Football Tournament, held here at Kalinga Stadium on Saturday. The Bureaucrat XI defeatd the Tata Steel XI in the final by 1-0 goals. Earlier in the two semi-final matches, Bureaucrat XI defeated Leaders XI and Tata Steel trounced the Media XI.

In the final, it was a hard fought match between Breaucrat XI and Tata Steel XI as neither team could score in the first half time. In the second half, Bureaucrat XI team’s SD Durga score one goal and sealed the game for his team.

The first semi-final of the tournamentwas played between the Leaders XI and Bureaucrat XI.In the first half of the match, Mr. Balwant Singh from Bureaucrat XI scored two consecutive goals to take his team on a significant lead.  In the second half K. Pradip of Bureaucrat XI scored two more goals. Bureaucrat XI won the match 4-0.

The second semi-final played between Tata Steel XI and Media XI was decided by penalty shootout as the match time ended with 1-1. In the first half of the match, Mr. Digza Prasad scored the first goal of the match and gave Tata Steel XI an advantageous position in the match. In the second half, Bikash Marandi of Media XI scored an equalizer against Tata Steel XI and brought the score down to 1-1. The outcome of the match was decided by penalty shootout in which Tata Steel XI won by scoring 5-4 against Media XI.

The Odisha chief secretary,Aditya Padhi, Saturday inaugurated the 12th edition of Tata Steel Friendship Cup Football Tournament, here at Kalinga Stadium. Sports minister Chandra Sarathi Behera, ST & SC development minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi, water resources minister Niranjan Pujari, and Tata Steel SEZ chairman  Arun Misra graced the occasion.

Nayagarh MLA Arun Sahu, additional chief secretary, forest and environment Suresh Mohapatra, KBK chief administrator S. P. Thakur, Tata Steel SEZ chairman Arun Mishra, MBC TV editor-in-chief Dilip Kumar Bisoi, Business Standard resident editor Dillip Satapathy, The Statesman bureau chief  K. Ravi, Samaja associate editor Tapan Mishra and senior journalist Srimoy distributed the prizes to both the champion and runners up teams.

  1. Pradeep of Bureaucrat XI was awarded Man of the Match for the first Semi-final, Mr. Rakesh Bharadwaj of Tata Steel XI was awarded Man of the Match for the second semi-final and Digza Prasad of Tata Steel XI was awarded Man of the Match for the finals. Mr. Rajiv Seth of Tata Steel XI was awarded the Best Goalkeeper. Saswat Mishra of Bureaucrat XI got the award for the Best Defense. Bikash Marandi of Media XI was awarded the Best Forward.  Arun Sahu of Leaders XI won the Fair Player Award of the tournament. Suresh Mohapatra of Bureaucrat XI was awarded the Best Half Award. Mr. Balwant Singh of Bureaucrat XI was awarded Highest Scorer of the tournament. The Best Disciplined Team Award went to Bureaucrat XI.