Hyderabad: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), as expected, beat Delhi 3-0 to lift the men’s team trophy for the 24th occasion, while Railways defeated Bengal ‘A’ 3-0 to take the women’s crown in the UTT 81st Senior National Table Tennis Championships at the Saroonagar Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
The Delhi squad that had reached the final after 37 years had to settle for silver. On the other hand, last year’s trophy holders Bengal would be disappointed for failing to measure up against a young Railways team. Railways women had won the title last at the Chennai Nationals in 1998.
With Sharath Kamal having been rested, the PSPB paddlers opened with Harmeet Desai. However, the international player was a little rusty and Sudhanshu Grover took advantage of it to go 2-0 up. But Harmeet got into the groove to subdue his young opponent to put PSPB on the path to victory.
Top-ranked Indian G. Sathiyan began well against Parth Virman, another youngster from Delhi, but it was no cakewalk. Parth stretched the world No.30 in the rubber and an under pressure Sathiyan dropped two games before overcoming his opponent in the decider.
Manav Thakkar, the World No.1 youth player, struggled against junior champion Payas Jain despite a comfortable 2-1 lead. He conceded the fourth game but turned up heat in the deciding game.
The Railways were in a position of strength going into the final. However, their top player Sagarika Mukehrjee was taken the full distance by a junior, Prapti Sen before the former’s experience and a cool head held her in good stead in the decider.
With a 1-0 cushion, it was for Takeme Sarkar to take on a normally consistent Mousumi Paul. But the latter, despite stretching her rival, could not win the first game. She was up to the task in the next and restored parity before Takeme going up using predominantly her powerful forehands with clever use of both flanks. At 1-2, Mousumi had to look for some miracles to stop the rampaging Takeme as she raced to a sizeable lead and maintained it throughout to put Railways in the lead (2-0).
In the third, Moumita Datta shed her usual inhibitions and, for a change, attacked to put Surbhi under tremendous pressure. Though the Bengal girl did manage to take a game off her, the dice was heavily loaded against last year’s champions and top-seeds.
The Results
Men’s final: PSPB bt Delhi 3-0 (Harmeet Desai bt Sudhanshu Grover 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-6; G. Sathiyan bt Parth Virmani 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 6-11, 12-10; Manav Thakkar bt Payas Jain 9-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-13, 11-4).
Women’s final: RSPB bt Bengal ‘A’ 3-0 (Sagarika Mukherjee bt Prapti Sen 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6; Takeme Sarkar bt Mousumi Paul 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-4; Moumita Datta bt Surbhi Patwari 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10).
