Ahmedabad: Riding on the hat-trick from captain Naro Hari Shrestha, West Bengal thrashed Kerala 5-0 to emerge champions in men’s football at the 36th National Games.

Rabi Hansda and Amit Chakrabarty were the other goal-scorers for the Bengal.

The match was a repeat of this year’s Santosh Trophy final when both Kerala and West Bengal went head-to-head. However, on that occasion, Kerala had the last laugh in a penalty shootout.

In the final in Ahmedabad, Bengal began dominantly and went 1 up in the 16th minute. Most of Bengal's goals came from Kerala's mistakes in a game where the latter's players showed poor form in forward, midfield and defence. Kerala surrendered without creating a single scoring chance.

West Bengal opened the scoring in the 16th minute of the game. They went on to score in the 30th, 45th, 51st and 85th minutes of the match.

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