Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), Dec 31 (IANS): Mumbai Shahar, Pune won the men's and women's titles respectively at the 70th Maharashtra State Level Kabaddi Championship, here.
The fourth and the final day of the tournament started with the men's semi-finals in which home team Ahmednagar beat Nanded by 9 points to make a grand entry into the finals. On the other hand, the first semi-final from the women's category brought a huge victory of 21 points to Pune against Nandurbar on late Saturday night.
The second women's semi-final turned out to be a one-sided affair with Mumbai Shahar destroying the Palghar team with 28 points margin to enter the finals. However, the most interesting match was between the two renowned rival teams from Mumbai fought out on the ground with Mumbai Shahar defeating Mumbai Upnagar in a close match by just 4 points.
Later, in the women's finals, Pune and Mumbai Shahar went neck-to-neck throughout the match only for Pune to take the last piece of the pie with one point and become the Champions on the back of Amrapali Galande's stellar performance with 10 raid points, making her the performance spotlight from the women's category.
However, it was the men's finals that stole the show and owned the stage in every possible way as the defending champions Ahmednagar and one of the most favourite teams the Mumbai Shahar battled it out for the Championship title.
Giving the fans an absolute delight, a nail-biting match reached a 'TIE' at the end of the time. The game eventually went on to the 'Golden Raid' a rare phenomenon especially in the final of the tournament.
The stellar performances of Shankar Gadai and Sushant Sail kept the suspense going. The final raid from the Pro Kabaddi League veteran Sushant Sai, however, sealed the deal for the Mumbai Shahar as they defeated the defending champions, the home team of Ahmednagar by 1 point in the Golden Raid and became the Champions of the biggest Kabaddi league from Maharashtra.