GUWAHATI, Feb 12 � Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men�s and women�s teams cruised into the final of the OIL 71st Senior National and Inter State Table Tennis Championship.
In the team event�s semifinals played at the Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium here today, PSPB women defeated West Bengal 3-0, while their male counterpart got the better of Dena Bank 3-2.
PSPB women will meet Indian Railways in the final which beat Maharashtra A 3-2, while PSPB men�s opponent in the title clash will be Maharashtra A which beat West Bengal 3-1.
Railways women Prajekta Tipale lost to Mamta Prabhu 9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 11-13, while Anindita Chakraborty levelled the issue with 11-9, 11-4, 11-9 with a victory against Mallika Bhandarkar of Maharashtra A.
In the third singles, Mansi Bhagwat gave Railways the lead by defeating Ashlesha Bodas 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6, but Mamta again restored parity downing Anindita Chakraborty 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6.
It was however Prajakta who saved the day for Indian Railways outsmarting Mallika 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 18-20, 11-9 in a gruelling battle.
PSPB women players, Madhurika Patkar, rallied to beat Mouma Das 8-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6, while her partner K Shamini earned a facile 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 victory against Pallani Kundu. In the third singles, Pooja Sahasrabudhe defeated Kritika Singha Roy 7-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-6 in a tough contest.
The PSPB men had to fight a stiff battle to defeat Dena Bank 3-2. Zubin Kumar of PSPB went down to R Abhishek 9-11, 11-5, 7-11, 10-12, but Subhajit Saha drew parity with a win against E Prabhakaran 11-7, 11-9, 11-7. The third singles went to PSPB as A Amalraj beat N Aditya 11-4, 11-6, 11-7.
However, Subhajit Saha of PSPB was beaten by R Abhishek 11-9, 8-11, 15-13, 8-11, 7-11 and finally Zubin won the decider beating Prabhakaran 11-6, 11-7, 11-9.
In the other semifinal, Maharashtra A beat West Bengal 3-1. Aniket Koparkar of Maharashtra went down to Sourav Chakraborty 11-5, 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11 but Sanil Shetty won his match for Maharashtra against Anirban Nandy 11-8, 4-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6.
The third match also went to Maharashtra as Aman Balgu downed Souvik Basu Roy 11-9, 11-7, 11-6. Sanil Shetty completed the formality defeating Sourav 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 12-10.
In the quarterfinals yesterday Dena Bank beat Haryana, Maharashtra beat Gujarat and West Bengal beat North Bengal in the men�s section.
In the women�s category, PSPB beat Kerala, West Bengal bt Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra A bt Gujarat and Indian Railways downed North Bengal.
The team finals will be played tomorrow.
The open events also began today. Results: Doubles (women): Kakoli Lahkar, Sanjana Sharma (Asm) bt Ahana Paul, Poulomi Raha (BHR) 3-2; Doubles (men): Anal Kashyap, Sahidul Alam Ahmed (Asm) bt Atin Rastogi, Rahul Jaiswal (UP) 3 - 0; Anal Kashyap, Sahidul Alam Ahmed (Asm) bt Raj Mondal, Saumyojit Ghosh (NB) 3 -0; Kaushik Phukan, Soneswar Deka (Asm) bt Albert C Kindo, Asif Haque (Ors) 3-2; Radheshyam Sahu, Ved Prakash (Asm) bt Simaranjeet Singh Nonda, Vikas Sharma (Chd) 3 - 2; Double (women): Madhumita Gogoi, Murchana Gohain (Asm) bt Lekshmy Vijayan P, Surumi Suhra (Krl) 3 - 0; Kakoli Lahkar, Sanjana Sharma (Asm) bt Parul Singh, Shilpi (Raj) 3-0; Mahasweta Batsalya, Mrigakhi Bordoloi (Asm) bt Kiran Chauhan, Manisha (HP) 3 - 0. (Incomplete)
Delhi blank Assam 2-0 in U-21 soccer
Gurgaon, Feb 12 (PTI): Delhi began their campaign in the under-21 National Football Championships with a 2-0 win over Assam in a Cluster VIII preliminary round match here today. Mid-fielder Monu Chaudhary converted a penalty kick in the added time of first-half (45+2 minute) after Delhi striker Ajay Bartwal was brought down inside the box by an Assam defender. Defender Mukesh Nathani headed home from a corner kick in 51st minute to make it 2-0 for Delhi. In another Cluster VIII match, Tamil Nadu blanked Daman and Diu 2-0 with R Shankar (70th minute) and Vekentshan (90+2 minute) finding the target.
