New Delhi, April 1 (IANS): Maharashtra clinched the title of 56th National Kho Kho Championship in both men's and women's categories, here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

A spectacular final match was played between Maharashtra and Railways in the men's category in which both the teams were tied 32-32 till the stipulated time. After which the third innings match was again played between both the teams.

The first three players of Railways defended well and gave a sky-high score of 50 points to Maharashtra. In response, Maharashtra made a strong comeback and did not give any chance to the Railways to recover.

However, Maharashtra won the match 52-50 by scoring 2 points at the last moment.

Earlier in the semifinal, Maharashtra defeated Kolhapur 30-28, while Railways defeated Odisha 24-22.

In the women's category, Maharashtra defeated Airport Authority of India by 18-16. Maharashtra captain Sampada Maurya played an important role in this victory.

In the women's category semifinal, the Maharashtra team defeated Odisha 24-20. Whereas the Airport Authority of India defeated Delhi 32-10.

In both men's and women's categories, the winning Maharashtra team was given Rs 3 lakh, and the runner-up team was given Rs 2 lakh each.

BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, who was present in the program, said “In the Kho-Kho game, it is very important for the player to be with his friends. This is a work of teamwork. Apart from the players and coaches, the team also contributes a lot to Kho-Kho reaching new heights. May Kho-Kho continue to progress day by day. Continuous work is going on for this.”