NEW DELHI, Sep 3 (IANS): India again emerged as the Nehru Cup champions for the third successive time after winning the final 5-4 in penalty shoot-out against Cameroon at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.

Both team failed to score the decider in the 30 minutes of extra time after finishing schedule time at 2-2 scoreline.

Unprecedented scenes as India lift Nehru Cup

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium saw unprecedented scenes as India overcame African giants Cameroon 5-4 in a penalty shootout here Sunday to lift the Nehru Cup for the third consecutive time.

Football fans invaded the pitch as Makon Thierry missed his spot-kick to give India a hat-trick of Nehru Cup titles.

The Indian players were completely surrounded by a massive crowd as police had to be called to disperse them.

"Oh my god! We just beat Cameroon," shouted an elated fan.

India held the Central Africans to a 2-2 draw in normal time as Sunil Chhetri and Gouramangi Singh found the back of the net.

Neither team could find the winner in extra-time as the match headed to penalties.

Fans, who had chosen to give the Nehru Cup football tournament a miss, came in large numbers to witness history being scripted

With the rain gods being kind, over 12,000 came to witness the final.

"I had to come see the final, India is playing. But it would have been even better if the actual Cameroon international side had come. If Samuel Eto'o, Alex Song and Benoit Assou-Ekotto were here that would have been great," Siddharth Arora, a student, told IANS.

It was the most vociferous support India has got in the tournament.

Flag waving, trumpet blowing and drum beating echoed throughout the ground with every touch of the ball by an Indian player cheered loudly.

There was more good news for the Indian team as president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel doubled the winning prize money from $100,000 to $200,000.