TN to face U’khand

Chennai: Tamil Nadu edged out an inspired Services 23-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 15-10 to enter the final of the 62nd senior national volleyball championship at Moradabad, UP, on Saturday. They will meet Uttarakhand, who hammered defending champions Kerala in straight sets in the other semi-final, in Sunday’s final.

What was supposed to be a sprint became a marathon in the end. Tamil Nadu had beaten Services in straight sets in the league stage but the semi-final was a different ball game. Services, who had upset Railways in the last eight, rattled TN with their aggressive approach. With veteran all-rounder Shijas Mohammed firing on all cylinders, Services took the first set with ease.

Tamil Nadu were in trouble as they trailed 12-16 in the second. But they pulled level on A. Anandaraj’s serves. Coach P. Sundaram had sent Anandaraj in place of John Christopher and the move worked a treat. Tamil Nadu setter M. Ukkrapandian as well as the blockers got their act together and it was all square.

Services raced to a 13-6 lead in the third only for Tamil Nadu rally brilliantly on the serves of M. Naveen Raja Jacob and Akhin. When the score was 17-all, TN’s first pass deserted them. Shijas also smashed winner after winner from zone two to give Services a 2-1 lead.

Sundaram restored TN’s original playing six in the fourth and his team was unstoppable. Services stormed to a 4-0 lead in the decider. But Tamil Nadu fought back superbly to reach the final. The highlight of the fifth set was the superb serving of Ukkrapandian. He won three points at the start and five in the end to finish the job for his team. He also used his first tempo attackers well.

Results: SF: Men: Uttarakhand bt Kerala 25-22, 25-23, 25-21. Tamil Nadu bt Services 23-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 15-10. Women: Railways bt Haryana 25-11, 25-13, 25-15. Kerala bt Tamil Nadu 25-12, 25-19, 25-18.

Gold for Karthi, Prag

DC Correspondent

Chennai: Karthikeyan Murali (U-16) and R. Praggnanandhaa (U-8) nailed the gold at the world youth chess championship in Al-Ain, UAE, on Saturday. Both the champions are from Tamil Nadu.

Karthikeyan edged out compatriot Girish A. Koushik on tiebreaker after they finished with nine points each after 11 rounds. Prag, on the other hand, had no need for any math as he completed the tournament with a perfect score of 11 points.

In the final round, he defeated an Iranian opponent to cap off a wonderful tournament. It was Prag’s first world gold. He had been a champion at the Asian level twice. Both Karthikeyan and Prag are products of Chennai’s Bloom Chess Academy. C. Lakshmi, another champ in the making from Tamil Nadu, finished third in the U-10 girls’ section to complete TN’s tally. In the same category, the gold went to Salonika Saina of India.

Other medallists from India: Vaibhav Sure (U-18 bronze). Girish A. Koushik (U-16 silver), Raghunandan K. Srihari (U-12 silver), Bhagyashree Patil (U-8 bronze).

Shrikrishna creates history

Shrikrishna creates history

S. Shrikrishna (TNBSA) created history to become the first ever Tamil Nadu cueist to bag four state titles in the Tamil Nadu billiards and snooker state ranking tournament by defeating B. Jagadesh (Mylapore Club) in the junior billiards final.

Result: S. Shrikrishna (TNBSA) bt B. Jagadesh (Mylapore Club) 555-377.

Govt HSS snatch last-gasp win

Brief scores of junior Super Kings inter-school T20 championship: At Tirunelveli: Sri Ramakrishna MHSS 151/6 in 20 overs (B. Indrajith 51, Suryah Prasanna 56, V .Manoharan 2/22) lost to Govt. HSS, Vikravandi 152/3 in 20 overs (K. Thirunavukkarasu 66*, R. Arularasan 33, R. Vivek Kumar 25*). MoM: K. Thirunavukkarasu. The Boys HSS, Srirangam 157/7 in 20 overs (N.S. Harish 70, Girish Negamanth 42, Ashwini Choudhary 2/24, Lalit Dolia 2/14) bt K.V. Air Force 95 in 17.2 overs (N.S. Harish 2/6, A.Mariappan 2/26, C.Sundar 2/18). MoM: N.S. Harish.

Sudarshan helps CSSF win
Brief scores of KRS-FSCA U-13 cricket tournament: CSSF 234/4 in 30 overs (S.C. Ashok Milton 61, B. Sai Sudharshan 109) bt Unique CA 144 in 29.5 overs. Kedar CA 140/8 in 30 overs (S. Aakash 26, N. Barath 50) lost to WGCA 143/4 in 23 overs (Nitin 45*, Suneel Albert 32, V. Sornakaleeswaran 37).

U-13 T20 cricket tournament
Chennai Cricket Club Academy will conduct CCCA-V. Rajamannar memorial U-13 T 20 cricket tournament for academies from January 12 on all Sunday’s and government holidays. A total of 10 teams will be taking part. For details contact: 99625 15557.

TN squad retained

The Tamil Nadu team that played against Rajasthan has been retained for their last Group ‘B’ match against Bengal to be played from December 30 at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium from December 30.
The squad: L. Balaji (captain), S. Badrinath (vice-captain), Abhinav Mukund, B. Aparajith, R. Prasanna, Dinesh Karthik (wk), K.B. Arun Karthik, B. Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, Malolan Rangarajan, R. Aushik Srinivas, A. Aswin Crist, J. Kaushik, Rahil S Shah, M. Mohammed. Support staff: Coach: W.V. Raman; assistant coach: M. Sanjay; physio: P.K. Naveen Babu; trainer: K. Manoj Kumar; masseur: Maria Doss; video analyst: Lakshminarayanan.

Kousik to lead TN U-19 team

J. Kousik has been named the captain of the Tamil Nadu state U-19 team to play against Baroda in the Cooch Behar trophy elite group ‘B’ tournament to be held from December 29 to January 1 at IC-Gurunanak college ground.

The squad: J. Kousik (c), M. Shahrukh Khan, K. Mukunth, C. Hari Nishanth, M. Adithyan, Washington Sundar, K. Vishal Vaidya, N. Jagadeesan, U. Vishal, K. Vignesh, B. Vasanth, R. Alexander, P. Akash Ram, S. Tarun Srinivas, M. Abhinav. Coach: D.J. Gokulakrishnan; assistant coach: P. Rajesh; physio: Dhanasekara Pandiyan; trainer: A. Satheesh Kumar.