Dominant PSPB through to finals, North Bengal women stun West Bengal

Poulomi Ghatak in action at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna on January 8, 2014

Patna, January 8, 2014: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men and women entered the final of the team championships underlining their supremacy yet again in the 75th Senior National Table Tennis Championships at the Patliputra Sports Complex here today.

In the semifinals PSPB men defeated Gujarat 3-0, their women accounted for Airports Authority of India in the identical margin, North Bengal women blanked West Bengal 3-0 and West Bengal defeated Haryana 3-0. West Bengal men had last reached the finals at Kolkata in 2010 and for North Bengal women it is their fourth entry in final.

PSPB men, with a star cast, were never under any threat as Soumyajit Ghosh, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai went about their routine in a clinical way against Gujarat to sound out a clear warning to their final opponent. But the West Bengal team, with Soumyadeep Roy in the best form of his life, was also up to the task to outclass Haryana, whose Jubin Kumar and Sourav Chakraborty, failed to find their quarterfinal rhythm. Earlier, the Haryana duo had surpassed all expectations to beat Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the last eight.

K Shamini began the semifinal proceedings for PSPB and took less than 25 minutes to dispose of Ayhika Mukherjee, though the former gained through several negative points. However, Madhurika Patkar played true to her expectation and Krittiwika Sinha Roy was finding it difficult to counter her opponent. There was a semblance of fight between Neha Aggarwal and Nikhat Banu, who managed to take a game off the PSPB girl, before being subdued.

But the second semifinal turned out to be a totally one-sided with six-time national champion and experienced Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das losing tamely to their North Bengal opponents Sukanya Bose and Sagarika Mukherjee, currently No. 1 player in the junior section. After Nandita huffed and puffed her way to win the first singles against a determined Suthirtha—she leveled score after being 0-2 down—Mouma played a sub-par game to lose to 16-year-old Sagarika.  

Poulomi, perhaps conserving her energy for the individual events, would rather like to forget her match against Sukanya Bose. Down 0-1, Poulomi looked like coming back as she led 10-4 in the second game only to lose her way from there. Though she did win a game, Poulomi was definitely at the receiving end. In fact, only Suthirtha, appearing in her first senior nationals, showed real tenacity in the entire West Bengal setup.

Delhi bow out

Delhi women, last year’s team winners, bowed out of the championships losing 1-3 to North Bengal. In any case, Delhi had a very little chance after Neha Aggarwal, who fashioned Delhi’s win at Raipur last year, was chosen to represent PSPB this year. And that took a heavy toll on Delhi’s fortunes.  

In the pre-quarters finals, only two matches in the men’s team event—Mizoram vs Gujarat and Maharashtra B vs North Bengal—went down to the wire while the match between Maharashtra B and Gujarat in the women’s affair went beyond expectations with the latter ending as the loser. Gujarat, despite leading 2-0, surrendered to the guile of Maharashtra B girls.

Results: Team events:

Men: Semifinals: PSPB bt Gujarat 3-0 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Jignesh Jaiswal 11-3, 11-8, 11-2, A Sharath Kamal bt Devesh Karia 10-12, 11-6, 11-3, 11-7, Harmeet Desai bt Hardik Bhatt 11-4, 11-5, 11-8), West Bengal bt Haryana 3-0 (Sourav Saha bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, Soumyadeep Roy bt Jubin Kumar 10-12, 11-3, 11-5, 11-7, Sougata Sarkar bt Sarthak Gandhi 11-7, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6); Quarterfinals: PSPB bt Maharashtra B 3-0 (Harmeet Desai bt Ravindra Kotiyan 11-8, 11-4, 13-11, A Amal Raj bt Chaitanya Udhare 11-6, 11-4, 11-4, Sanil Shetty bt Paresh Murekar 11-6, 11-4, 11-7), Gujarat bt Maharashtra A 3-1 (Devesh Karia bt Omkar Torgalkar 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7, Jignesh Jaiswal lost to Aman Balgu 9-11, 11-4, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11, Hardik Bhatt bt Nishaad Shah 8-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-7, Devesh Karia bt Aman Balgu 8-11, 11-5, 11-3, 12-10), Haryana bt Tamil Nadu 3-1 (Sourav Chakraborty bt Sushmit Sriram 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, Sarthak Gandhi lost to Nitin Thiruvenkadam 11-8, 14-16, 12-10, 8-11, 8-11, Jubin Kumar bt Vinoth G 11-5, 11-6, 10-12, 11-4, Sourav Chakraborty bt Nitin Thiruvenkadam 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5), West Bengal bt RSPB 3-2 (Sourav Saha bt Souvik Kar 11-8, 9-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, Soumyadeep Roy bt Anirban Nandi 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, Sougata Sakar lost to E Prabhakaran 4-11, 10-12, 6-11, Sourav Saha los to Anirban Nandi 11-8, 6-11, 11-13, 7-11, Soumyadeep Roy bt Souvik Kar 11-8, 11-4, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8).

Women: Semifinals: PSPB bt AAI 3-0 (K. Shamini bt Ayhika Mukherjee 13-11, 11-5, 11-3, Madhurika Patkar bt Krittwika Sinha Roy 12-10, 11-5, 11-7, Neha Aggarwal bt Nikhat Bhanu 11-2, 7-11, 119, 12-10), North Bengal bt West Bengal 3-0 (Nandita Saha bt Suthirtha Mukherjee 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 6-11, 11-9, Sagarika Mukherjee bt Mouma Das 13-11, 11-7, 12-10, Sukanya Bose bt Poulami Ghatak 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5); Quarterfinals: North Bengal bt Delhi 3-1 (Nandita Saha lost to Manika Batra 6-11, 8-11, 9-11, 13-11, 5-11, Sagarika Mukherjee bt Sanya Sehgal 11-9, 6-11, 6-11, 11-8, 14-16, Sukanya Bose bt Esha Monga 11-7, 11-5, 11-4, Sagarika Mukherjee bt Manika Batra 11-7, 11-3, 6-11, 11-6), West Bengal bt Tamil Nadu 3-0 (Poulami Ghatak bt Amrutha Pushpak 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-4, Mouma Das bt N. Vidya 1-15, 12-10, 12-10, Mousmi Pal bt Narasimha Priya 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9), AAI bt Maharashtra A 3-1 (Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Mallika Bhandarar 11-9, 11-3, 11-8, Nikhat Bhanu lost to Divya Deshpande 11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 4-11, Ayhika Mukherjee bt Senhora D’Souza 11-7, 11-2, 11-8, Krittwika Sinha Roy bt Divya Deshpande 12-10, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9), PSPB bt Maharashtra B 3-0 (K. Shamini bt Charvi Kawle 11-7, 11-6, 11-2, Madhurika Patkar bt Piti Mokashi 11-4, 11-3, 11-5, Neha Aggarwal bt Rutuja Khopkar 11-2, 11-8, 12-10).