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A friendly match marks the start of the roll ball championship at Jamshedpur’s JRD Tata Sports Complex on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad
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Kerala boys made the perfect start to their campaign trumping Chhattisgarh 2-0, while Punjab were held 1-1 in their match against Uttar Pradesh during Day One of the Junior National Roll Ball Championship on Friday. The event was inaugurated at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.
Kerala, which came up with a dominating performance in the inaugural match, refused to give any leeway to their opponents right from the start, attacking the Chhattisgarh goal at will.
The southern team adjusted well to the concrete surface while their opponents were still coming to terms with it. They went in to half time 1-0 and came back later to pump in one more to bag the match in style.
The matches that are being played under floodlights seemed to have caught the fancy of city residents, with a huge crowd turning up on Day One to lend vocal support to the state girls who locked horns with eves from Tamil Nadu later. The match was in progress till the filing of this report.
Earlier, Tata Steel vice-president Sanjiv Paul, in the presence of the steel major’s sports department head Captain Amitabh, inaugurated the championship. The others present at the event included Jharkhand Roll Ball Association president Manoj Yadav and secretary of the body Chandeshwar Kumar.
“The basic idea of hosting the event was to popularise the sport in Jharkhand. Tata Steel has done its bit by setting up a roll ball training centre at the JRD Tata Sports Complex. I am sure that the championship will help us in generating awareness about the sport which is yet to gain a foothold in the country,” Kumar said.
The three-day championship will see 22 teams from across the country taking part in it.
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