Petroleum’s stock rises, despite drop in crude oil prices

Pudhucherry, January 14: The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) extended their reigns for yet another year as their men lifted the Barna Ballack Cup and their women the Jayalakshmi Cup in the 76th Senior Nationals at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today. In both the team finals, PSPB had a common opponent in West Bengal with identical 3-0 verdicts.

Today’s triumphs, apart from reconfirming—if any confirmation was needed—PSPB’s supremacy, also showed the amount of groundwork every other team has to do to raise itself to a level and pose any real threat to them in the future. It may not happen until PSPB decides to stop offering lucrative scholarships to potential winners or discontinue the practice of recruiting top players!

For the moment, however, no one can take the credit away from the PSPB paddlers. Soumyajit Ghosh was in some sort of a discomfort against a fighting Sougata Sarkar, but the latter could only stretch him in every game in the first rubber. Sarkar, not afraid to attack, replied in the same vein executing his forehands and indulging in rallies. But he was committing mistakes at the net at crucial junctues, thus giving away negative points to his opponents.

As for Sathiyan, who has had a very good domestic season, was slow to start but had positioned himself well after that to account for Sourav Saha. Once Saha was tackled well by Sathiyan, as PSPB led 2-0, things became rather easy for Harmeet Deasi to put it beyond the reach of West Bengal. Desai simply toyed with young Surajit Sarkar.

Too much reliance on Mousumi Paul was the bane of West Bengal as PSPB’s women team—Ankita Das, K. Shamini and Manika Batra—just went about its task very clinically in the final. Except for Manika Batra, who conceded a game to her opponent Pallabi Kundu, both Ankita and Shaimi played as if they were playing against novices.

Redemption for WB

It was sort of a redemption time for West Bengal teams as both their men and women entered the finals. Their men made it simple and straightforward against Haryana, winning the semifinals 3-0 and their women’s team beat Airports Authority of India 3-1. The other semifinals winners were, of course, the reigning champions PSPB.

PSPB could have been pushed into some deeper trouble had Devesh Karia cashed in on his roaring form to beat national champion Sanil Shetty in his reverse match. Shetty provided the lead for PSPB but Karia equalized with fine performance against Soumyajit Ghosh to win the five-setter. Yet, PSPB had the upper hand when G. Sathiyan beat Jignesh Jaiswal. All eyes were once again on Karia who was taking on Shetty.

True to his reputation, Karia had everything going for him—he led 2-0 and 10-6 in the third game—until the third game where Shetty, known for his fighting qualities, staged a remarkable comeback to take the match and put the issue beyond Gujarat. The match saw fine rallies, excellent retrievals, good returns and edge-of-the-table shots from both left-handers.

West Bengal men, on the other hand, made it a one-sided affair as Jubin Kumar was rendered helpless on the day by the experienced Sourav Saha. Earlier when Sourav Chakraborty lost to Sougata Sarkar, it was curtains for Haryana as Sarthak Gandhi could not match the guiles of Surajit Das.

For the highly skillful West Bengal women, AAI were no match. Playing with the juniors, it was always going to be difficult and, in fact, it was a junior who managed to take a match off Shreya Ghosh. That was all AAI could do as Anandita Chakraborty and Mousumi Paul, their star paddler, took good care of the team’s interests. PSPB, in the other semifinal, gave very little chance to Maharashtra A, despite Madhurika Pantkar and Divya Deshpande stretching their rivals Ankita Das and Manika Batra the full distance.     

Results (team events):

Men: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sougata Sarkar 13-11, 12-10, 14-12, G. Sathiyan bt Sourav Saha 9-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-7, Harmeet Desaia bt Surajit Das 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7); Semifinals: PSPB bt Gujarat 3-1 (Sanil Shetty bt Hardik Bhatt 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, Soumyajit Ghosh lost to Devesh Karia 8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 8-11, G. Sathiyan bt Jignesh Jaiswal 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, Sanil Shetty bt Devesh Karia 2-11, 13-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7), West Bengal bt Haryana 3-0 (Sougata Sarkar bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-5, 11-7, 11-7, Sourav Saha bt Jubin Kumar 11-9, 11-8, 12-10, Surajit Das bt Sarthak Gandhi 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10).  

Women: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Mousumi Paul 11-7, 11-6, 11-6, K. Shamini bt Anandita Chakraborty 11-6, 11-5, 15-13, Manika Batra bt Pallabi Kundu 4-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5); Semifinals: PSPB bt Maharashtra A 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Madhurika Patkar 9-11, 11-3, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5, Mouma Das bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe 13-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-5, Manika Batra bt Divya Deshpande 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6), West Bengal bt Airports Authority of India 3-1 (Anandita Chakraborty bt Nikhat Banu 11-4, 11-6, 1-11, 12-10, Mousumi Paul bt Amrutha Pushpak 11-6, 6-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6, Shreya Ghosh lost to Sereha Jacob 10-12, 7-11, 12-10, 7-11, Mous8mi Paul bt Nikhat Banu 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 2-11, 11-9).

A TTFI Press release