Odisha News Times News Of Odisha For Odisha
Bhubaneswar:9/9/147: In the final of 11th edition of Tata Steel Friendship Cup Football match, Bureaucrats XI beat Tata Steel XI in a fiercely contested match. While both the teams sweat it out in the middle and ended goalless, the teams went to the tiebreaker to decide the winner. he babus beat the corporate employees by a margin of 5-3 to life the cup.
“IAS, IPS and other officers from across the state have come to participate in the match. We thoroughly enjoyed the game,” senior bureaucrat Suresh Mohapatra said.
Prior to the final, two semi final matches were played in the ground.
The first semi was played between the Leaders XI and Bureaucrat XI. In the second half, S. D Durga from Bureaucrat XI scored first goal of the match. The only goal from Leaders XI was scored by Arun Sahu. The match was won by the Bureaucrat XI by 3-1 through tie-breaker.
In the second semi final, the match was played between Tata Steel XI and Media XI. In the first half, both the teams failed to put the ball in the net. In the second half, the lone goal was hit by Mohan Singh Gagrai taking Tata Steel into the final.
“It’s an opportunity to take time out from the busy schedules. We enjoyed it,” Sports and Youth Services Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera expressed.
In the post match ceremony, several prizes were given away. Bibhuti Biswal of Media XI was awarded as the Best Defence, Aditya Thakur of Tata Stee lXI as Best Half, Arun Sahoo of Leaders XI as Best Forward, Amitab Thakur of Bureaucrat XI as Best Goalkeeper, J. D Pati of Bureaucrat XI as Promising player, Suresh Mahapatra of Bureaucrat XI as Fair Player. Similarly, Man of the Match of the first, second and final match was given to S.D Durga of Bureaucrat XI, Mohan Singh Gagrai, Tata Steel XI and Pradeep of Bureaucrat XI respectively.
Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Minister, ST and SC Development, Niranjan Pujari, Minister, Industry, Housing and Urban Development, Bikram Keshari Arukha, Minister, Parliamentary Affairs, Information and Public Relations, MLA, Arun Sahoo, R. Balakrishnan, Development Commissioner, Suresh Mahapatra, Additional Secretary, Dillip Satapathy, Resident Editor, Business Standard, K. Ravi, Bureau Chief, The Statesman, Sunil Bhaskaran, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, Arun Misra, Vice President, Project Gopalpur & MD, Tata Steel SEZ, and Manikanta Naik, Chief Resident Executive, Tata Steel, Bhubaneswar were present on the occasion.
