The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Kerala triumphs

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Tuesday, Dec 12, 2006
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Kerala triumphs

BANGALORE: Kerala made it a hat-trick of triumphs. Having won the last two editions at Tirur and Shillong, Kerala Postal Circle retained the all-India postal football championship title, in its 20th year, at the Football Stadium here on Monday. In the final, Kerala downed host Karnataka 2-1.

Karnataka did all the running and had chances galore but frittered them all and it was much against the run of play that Kerala got the match winner. Nafsal eluded the offside trap and out-sprinted the defence to place the ball past a hapless goalkeeper R. Ravindra in the 63rd minute.

First strike

Earlier Kerala shot into the lead in the 22nd minute when C.J. Roy slammed a left footer into the roof of the net from 25 yards out. However ten minutes later Karnataka equalised when Arun Pandey neatly controlled a lob from Santosh Kumar, advanced a few paces and placed the ball into the net past Ashique Rehman in the Kerala goal.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu overcame West Bengal 2-1 with an extra-time goal to clinch the third place. Latifuddin scored an early goal for West Bengal but Santhakumar scored in the 82nd and 111th minutes to give TN victory.

Meera Datta, Chief Postmaster General gave away the prizes. — Principal Correspondent

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