JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Bank made a winning start when the formidable side beat Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Kolkata by two goals to one in the All India Public Sector Football Tournament being played at Hill View Stadium Ranchi in Jharkhand.
As per the reports reaching here, match started at a slow pace due to hot and humid weather, players trying to conserve their energy.
In the 11th minute, Adnan Ayub got a fine through pass from the left winger deceiving the RBI defenders which he converted into a splendid goal giving his team the lead. In the 35th minute RBI team made a good move and their striker entered into the penalty area and scored a superb goal thus equalising the score.
In the second half, J&K Bank skipper, Rohit Kumar was tripped from behind by RBI defenders in the penalty area which led to referee awarding penalty in favour of J&K Bank. Mohammad Uneeb scored the second goal by converting the penalty putting his team upfront. In the 75th minute of the game, light was so dim that players could not play and referees had to stop the match and decided to play the remaining 15 minutes of play next morning.
Remaining 15 minutes were played this morning from 8:15 AM at the same venue. RBI players tried their level best to equalise the score but were denied by the J&K Bank defence especially Waseem Feroz, who was later on declared Man of the Match due to his outstanding performance.
With this win J&K Bank grabbed all three points from the match and will now clash with ONGC Mumbai on 15th April in the next group match.
The match was witnessed by a large crowd and members of All India Public Sector Promotional Board.
In all, 13 teams, divided into four groups, are participating in this tournament. The ONGC, Air India, State Bank of Travancore, BSNL, FCI, RBI, Oil India are the main contenders of the tournament.