Maharashtra, a team comprising of players mainly from the Bengal-Mumbai Football Club, who are the current Mumbai league champions, dominated the proceedings right from the beginning. Assam did provide some resistance, but did not threaten much.

Maharashtra's first goal came in the 40th minute with Abdul Abid's cross finding Arshad Ansari inside the Assam box. Ansari advanced a couple of steps and directed the ball towards the goal. Maharashtra consolidated the lead in the 64th minute. A speedy Uday Konar received a pass from Ansari inside the box. Konar beat Assam defender Sandipan Chakraborty and flicked the ball past the goalkeeper into the net.

Two minutes alter, Ansari got his second goal of the match to give Maharashtra an almost unbeatable lead of 3-0. Left back Sanjay Dayal ran into the Assam box and passed on to a waiting Konar.The striker broke himself free from his shadows and rushed to the left and squared from a very acute angle. Ansari charged in to tap into the open goal.

Assam vice-captain Nabojyoti Talukdur could have reduced the margin in the 71st minute, but his shot was inches wide. Assam finally managed to reduce the margin two minutes before the close with Durga Chetri's free-kick from edge of the box going through the Maharashtra wall and eluding a diving Khanolkar to roll into the goal.

State eves win hockey gold
Favourites Maharashtra today won the gold of the women hockey event defeating a fighting Haryana by virtue of a 53rd minute penalty corner conversion.

After the break, Maharashtra regrouped and starting using their body power and dribbling ability to keep Haryana players at bay. They forced three penalty corners within ten minutes of the second half.

Maharashtra however kept the pressure and converted their last penalty corner which came in the 53rd minute. Laxmi sent the push and Silveniainstead of taking the shot deflected the ball to Geeta who made no mistake to bang from the right flank to make it 1-0.

Punjab, Kerala win volleyball titles
Last Games runner-up Punjab and holders Kerala humbled their rivals in two exciting finals to clinch the men's and women's volleyball golds at the Khuman Lampak Indoor Stadium here today.

Led by international Surjeet Singh, Punjab men proved their supremacy after a pitched 88-minute battle against spirited Tamil Nadu. Punjab ultimately prevailed 3-1.

In the play off match Kerala routed Karnataka in straight sets 25-17, 25-13, 25-18 for the bronze.

However, in the women's final defending champions Kerala retained their title when they beat Maharashtra 3-1 in grueling encounter lasting nearly 86 minutes. Last National games runner-up Tamil nadu took the bronze medal drubbing Andhra Pradesh in five set (25-12,25-21, 20-25, 14-25, 15-12.)The men's final began on a rousing note with both Punjab and Tamil Nadu with several internationals intheir ranks, fighting for every point.

After the match a jubilant Surjeet said he was very happy with the performance of his team in the final which gave the state its maiden gold in the National games volleyball competition.

Kerala swell medals tally
Kerala's domination in the water Sports is complete as they picked up four golds and silver from the 1000 metre rowing in the Lok tak lake.Kerala got the golds in the coxed fours, coded pairs, double scull (women) single scull while the silver came men's double scull and coxed four men.

Shalini Varghese of Kerala picked up two golds to help her team not only winning the overall title of rowing but also Kerala to maintain the lead in the overall tally.

Punjab regain team championship
Punjab matmen reigned supreme claiming both free style and Greeco Roman team championship titles as they returned with a rich haul of total eight golds in wrestling events.

While Punjab collected 71 points in free style and 77 in Greeco-Roman, Delhi,which picked up two goals in free style today, was adjudged runners up in both the styles having collected 60 and 59 points respectively.

However, the women's wrestling team title went to Delhi with 50 points, as they added a silver through Manisha Kumari (62 kg) and two more bronze medals won by Kamini Yadav (51 kg), and Sudesh Antal (above 68 kg) today.

Raman meets Basak in TT final
Top seed S Raman of Tamil Nadu will take on second seed Arup Basak of Bengal while the women's singles will be an all Bengal affair in which third seed Mouma Das will face fourth seed Anindita Chakraborty in the finals table tennis championships to be played at the D M College indoor stadium.

In the mixed doubles final, top ranked pair of Arup Basak and Mouma Das of Bengal will play the third ranked duo of S Raman and N Arul Selvi of Tamil Nadu later in the day.

In the day's first semi-final of the men's section, Raman thrashed Soumayadeep Roy of Rajasthan 21-13,21-11. The second one, saw Arup getting past aredoubtable third seed Subhajit Saha, also of Bengal Arup prevailed 21-16, 21-18, 21-6.

In the men's third position play-off, Subhajit defeated Soumayadeep 21-11,21-7, 25-23 to claim the bronze.

Playing the first semi-final, top seed Poulami Ghatak conceded her match due to illness to fourth seed and compatriot Anindita in the opening game itself. Mouma set up a summit showdown with Anindita after upsetting second seed N R Indu of Tamil Nadu 14-21, 21-16, 21-19, 21-16 in a closely contested match.

Pandey, Debnath add to their tally Displaying excellence Vikash Pandey of Uttar Pradesh and Tumpa Debnath of Bengal today collected one more gold each in horizontal bar and floor exercise on the penultimate day.

They now lead the field in overall individual gold tally for men and women in gymnastics.

Vikash, who earlier bagged gold in all round individual, allround team and floor exercises and a silver in pomelled horse today picked up his fourth gold topping at the horizontal bar with 8.675 points. Thesilver in this event went to Mahit Yadav with 8.325 points while Rajinder Prasad of Punjab bagged the bronze collecting 8.20 points.

Fourteen year old, class eight student from Bengal Tumpa Debnath made her state proud as she picked up her third gold in this this meet from floor exercise in women section with 8.0 points.

Punjab lose in handball semis Kerala is on course for its last gold of the National Games with its women handball team in final after defeating strong favourite Punjab 27-25 in a nerve wrecking semifinal played at the indoor stadium of the Khuman Lampak Sports complex.

The Punjab was leading 17-11 in the half time when Kerala came from behind to take the lead in the dying minutes and then romped home with some brilliant display of jumping shots to make it 27-25.

However much of the credit for Kerala's victory should go to international handballer K Ushanandini who pumped in 10 goals.