New Delhi: Air India would have the responsibility to stop Petroleum Sports Promotion Board from winning the double crown in the ATS 69th Inter State-Inter Zonal Badminton championship for the 14thconsecutive time after they booked their place in the summit clash for both the Rahimtoola Cup for men and Chadha Cup for women against the defending champions on Wednesday.
Air India men had to play out of their skin to beat underdogs Haryana 3-2 in the semifinal while the women got the better of West Bengal 2-0, though the tie was not as easy as the result suggested.
In the other semifinals, PSPB men suffered a slight wobble when they dropped a point in men’s doubles before getting the better of Airport Authority of India 3-1, while the women sailed through 2-0 against Kerala.
Though the PSPB men were not at their best but efforts from Sourabh Verma and Srikanth K ensured that they secure their teams place in the finals, the form of Air India’s players wasn’t any better on Wednesday.
Both their junior stars, Aditya Joshi and Harsheel Dani struggle to cope with their more experienced opponents and it was only the superiority of the airmen in the doubles department that saw them through.
Results (semifinals):
Rahimtoola Cup
1-PSPB bt Airport Authority of India 3-1 (Sourabh Verma bt C Rohit Yadav 23-21, 17-21, 21-13; K Srikanth bt Kaushal Dharmamer 21-15, 17-21, 21-7; K Tarun/Arun Vishnu lost to Manu Atri/K Nandagopal 23-21, 16-21, 21-18; RMV Guru Sai Dutt bt K Nandagopal 18-14 retd.)
2-Air India bt Haryana 3-2 (Anand Pawar bt Neeraj Vashisth 21-9, 16-21, 21-19; Aditya Joshi lost to Akshit Mahajan 10-21, 10-21; Akshay Dewalkar/Sanyam Skhula bt Mahajan/Neeraj Vashisth 22-20, 21-14; Harsheel Dani lost to Ketan Chahal 21-23, 21-12, 21-13; G Gopi Raju/Jishnu Sanyal bt Ketan Chahal/Sourav Kapoor 14-21, 21-9, 21-16)
Chadha Cup
1-PSPB bt Kerala 2-0 (PV Sindhu bt J Malvika 21-10, 21-12; Ashwini Ponnappa/Jwala Gutta bt KP Shruthi/Farah Mather 21-18)
Air India bt West Bengal 2-0 (Sayali Gokhale bt Sheshadri Sanyal 21-13, 18-21, 21-8; Saili Rane/Sanyogita Ghorpade bt Sanyal/Amrita Mukherjee 22-20, 21-15).
