Karnataka State Police (KSP) rallied from a one-goal deficit to edge out Canara Bank 7-6 (1-1) in the sudden death to retain the 11th Field Marshal Cariappa Memorial hockey tournament at the KSHA Stadium here on Sunday.

After failing to break 1-1 parity in the regulation time, the two teams successfully converted all their respective strokes in the tie-breaker to stay level at 6-6.

The Cops then put pressure on Bankmen when Pradeep sounded the board with his team’s sixth stroke past rival goalkeeper Muthappa to make it 7-6. The next stroke taken by Canara’s Kaverappa MK was blocked by KSP custodian Ramachandra with a low dive to the right, triggering boisterous celebrations by the defending champions in front of a sizable holiday crowd. Earlier, Varun Chinnappa put Canara on top with a 34th-minute strike but Srihari brought in the equaliser for Cops in the 51st minute.

After the 60-minute regulation time, the success rate for the bankmen was 100 per cent in their initial five strokes with Chinnappa, Shanmugham, John Verghese, Appanna and Kaverappa finding the target. For KSP, Pradeep, Satish, Shiva, M S Sundar and Mohan Kumar were on target in that order.

In a barren first-half, marked by solid defending by both teams, the action was mostly confined to the midfield. The first opportunity came KSP’s way in the 14th minute but Pradeep was not able to connect a long pass by Mohan Kumar.

After resumption, the Bankmen were more aggressive with frequent raids. Three minutes into the session, KSP was lucky not to concede a goal when a Dinesh deflection missed the target by a whisker.

But, in the very next minute, Canara made amends for that lapse when Varun intruded the opponent penalty with a quick run on the right and put one past rival custodian to take the lead. That goal changed the complexity of the match as Canara started unleashing frequent attacks with Somanna and Dinesh leading the charge.

However, KSP netted the equaliser against the run of play when Srihari deceived a charging rival goalkeeper with a splendidly angled hit from the right.

Special prizes:

Best goalkeeper: Altaf (MLI, Belgaum); Best defender: Mohan Kumar (KSP); Best midfielder: Harpreet Singh ( ASC), Best forward: Anup Anothy (Central Excise), Player of the tournament: K M Somanna (Canara Bank); Fair play trophy: MLI, Belgaum.