Lucknow: It was one of those rare topsy-turvy days at the Senior National and Inter-state Table Tennis championships. First and foremost, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), the holders of women title, for the first time lost in a semi-final since time immemorial. Two, teams like West Bengal and North Bengal, too, lost their grip over other teams in the men’s section. But there was some gain for Gujarat who made a ripple of sorts when they beat West Bengal to enter the semi-finals at the SAI sub-centre here on Wednesday.
PSPB, however, can take heart from the fact that their men are still in contention for the medal and the winners’ trophy as they will take on Tamil Nadu in the final tomorrow. And Tamil Nadu’s men, who huffed and puffed their way to semifinals, did to overcome a determined Gujarat. Now they have a chance, a little difficult though, to go for a shot at the title.
When PSPB women’s lost to Maharashtra A 2-3, the former’s men team did not take any chance and sensibly played the experienced but rusty Achanta Sharath Kamal who defeated Eric Fernandes in straight games of 12-10, 11-4, 11-7. Then it was left to Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy to follow suit as they comfortably foreclosed any option for Maharashtra men.
It was heartening to see Tamil Nadu, sans G Sathiyan and Satheeswaran, fight back strongly to beat a confident Gujarat 3-2, after being down 0-2. It looked as if Devesh Karia, who helped Gujarat enter semifinals with a great game against Sourav Chakraborty, would turn out to be the hero yet again.
But despite winning his first game, he lost the decider against Tamil Nadu’s Vinod G as the latter managed to take the rubber to five grueling games. Vinod won 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5. Harmeet, who was instrumental taking both his matches in the quarterfinals, failed to do an encore and that’s where Gujarat lost their rhythm and the pressure was telling on Karia.
Coming back to the semi-final game between Maharashtra and PSPB women, credit must be given to Mamta Prabhu, the CWG silver medallist, who made a match of it against the singles defending champion K. Shamini. In fact, the PSPB girl lost both her singles and that put the spokes in PSPB’s wheel of progress.
Shamini seemed clueless on a day when teammate Mouma Das was at her best, helping the team with two of her singles wins. But that was not sufficient with Shamini having to play the decider against Mamta who had lost to Mouma 11-13, 10-12, 7-11, did an excellent repair job against Shamini who was not in her elements. She began with a loss and followed it up with a win but again she lost her third game for Mamta to gain in confidence.
That’s when Mamta regrouped herself to play her effective forehands and topspin attacking shots to upset the rhythm of Shamini. After the scores were level at 2-2, in the last game only once did Shamini lead at 3-1. But from here it was Mamta all the way as she closed it out on serve when Shamini sent the ball out to let the Maharashtra camp into a jubilatory huddle. The din that followed was understandable for the PSPB women have lost only once to Railways and that too in the final.
Maharashtra will take on North Bengal, who beat West Bengal 3-0 in the other semi-fina, in tomorrow’s final. After Nandita Saha beat Anandita Chakraborty 6-11, 15-13, 3-11, 12-10, 11-8, it was left to Ankita Das to consolidate as she downed Krittiwita Sinha Roy 9-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-5 and Takema Sarkar completed the task by beating Pallavi Kundu in four games.
The Results:
Men: Semi-finals: Tamil Nadu bt Gujarat 3-2 (RS Raja lost to Devesh Karia 7-11, 9-11, 6-11, G. Vinod lost to Harmeet Desai 7-11, 8-11, 6-11, Sivananda Seshadri bt Jignesh Jaiswal 11-9, 4-11, 7-11, 13-11, 11-5, RS Raja bt Harmeet Desai 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-4, G Vinod bt Devesh Karia 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5; PSPB bt Maharashtra A 3-0 (Sharath Kamal bt Eric Fernandes 12-10, 11-4, 11-7, Subhajit Saha bt Chaitanya Udhare 11-9, 11-8, 4-11, 11-3, Soumyadeep Roy bt Rohit Choudhary 13-11, 11-9, 11-6. Quarterfinals: PSPB bt RSPB 3-0 (Sanil Shetty bt Anirban Nandi 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, Amal Raj bt Aman Balgu 11-6, 11-7, 11-9, Subhajit Saha bt Sayan Paul Roy 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8; Maharashtra A bt North Bengal 3-2 (Chaitanya Udhare lost to Soumyajit Ghosh 11-8, 3-111, 7-11, 7-11, Eric Fernandes bt Raj Mondal 6-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, Rohit Choudhary bt Rahit Chakraborty 11-6, 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, Eric Fernandes lost to Soumyajit Ghosh 9-11, 7-11, 7-11, Chaitanya Udhare bt Raj Mondal 5-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9; Tamil Nadu bt Haryana 2-1 (Raja RS lost to Mohit Verma 6-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 5-11, Sivananda Seshadri bt Rajiv Ghai 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7, Vinod G bt Ayush Tayal 4-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-2; Gujarat bt West Bengal 3-1 (Devesh Karia bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11, 11-9, Harmeet Desai bt Subham Choudhary 11-4, 11-4, 11-6, Jignesh Jayswal lost to Ranbir Das 8-11, 5-11, 5-11, Harmeet Desai bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-9, 4-11, 5-11, 14-12, 11-9.
Women: Semi-finals: Maharashtra A bt PSPB 3-2 (Madhurika Patkar bt K Shamini 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 14-12, Mamta Prabhu lost to Mouma Das 11-13, 10-12, 7-11, Divya Deshpande bt Pulami Ghatak 11-7, 3-11, 11-6, 13-11, Madhurika Patkar lost to Mouma Das 11-6, 5-11, 2-11, 8-11, Mamta Prabhu bt K. Shamini 11-8, 12-14, 11-5, 4-11, 11-8; North Bengal bt West Bengal 3-0 (Nandita Saha bt Anandita Chakraborty 6-11, 15-13, 3-11, 12-10, 11-8, Ankita Das bt Krittiwita Sinha Roy 9-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-5, Takema Sarkar bt Pallavi Kundu 8-11, 11-9, 15-13, 11-1. Quarterfinals: PSPB BEAT Tamil Nadu 3- 0 (Poulami Ghatak bt Vidya N 11-5 , 13-11, 11-4, Mouma Das bt Sumana R Krishnan 11-7 , 11-3 , 11- 6, Mousami Pal bt Narmada KK 11-9 5-11 , 4-11 ; Maharashtra A bt Gujarat 3-1 (Mamta Prabhu bt Nargis Malubhai 11-4, 11-7 , 11-5, Madhurika Patkar bt Sapna Sharma 11-6 , 11-6 11-5, Mallika Bhandarkar lost to Frenaz Chipiya 7-11, 11-8 , 13-11 , 5-11, 7- 11, Madhurika Patkar bt Nargis Malubhai 11-9 , 11-4 , 12- 10; North Bengal bt Maharashtra B 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Prajata Tipale 4-11,11-,11-8,11-4, Nanidita Saha bt Pooja Sahastrabudhe 11-9,11-7,11-9, Takema Sarkar bt Senhorta D’Souza 11-4,11-7,9-11,6-11,11-9; West Bengal bt Airports Authority of India 3-1 (Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Karnam Spoorthy 11-5, 11-9 , 11-9, Anandita Chakraborty lost to Nikhat Bhanu 7-11, 13- 11, 11-7 , 8-11,10-12, Pallavi Kundu bt Nivedita AV 11-5, 13- 11, 12-10, Anandita Chakraborty bt Karnam Spoorthy 8-11, 11-3, 11-6 , 11-9.
