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.

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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.

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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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