Japan tame India 5-4 in Junior Women Asia Cup hockey

Changzhou (China), 12 September 2015: India Junior Women Hockey team today went down fighting 2-2 (2-3 shoot out) against Japan during the Semi-Final match of the 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2015. After a closely fought match and riding with the goals scored by Deep Grace Ekka and Renuka Yadav, Indian eves lost the match in the shoot-out where their Asian counterpart edged-past Indians by 3-2. India will now be playing against Korea in the 3rd-4th classification match on September 13.

The first half started with India’s surprise attack on Japanese side and very soon they earned a penalty corner. Deep Grace Ekka received the shot and hit hard into the goal-box to score the first goal of the match in the 4th minute. With the early 1-0 lead, Indian eves managed to put pressure on their opponents and played most of their game in the Japanese half. Japan took some time to recover and counter-attacked on the Indian side. 

After few charges, they earned a penalty corner but Indian goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur thwarted the attack. Japanese got another penalty corner in 18th minute and this time captain Yukari Mano converted, ensuring that the game equalised at1-1. 25th minute and midfielder Renuka Yadav sneaked into Japanese half with her quick moves and sent the ball to the nets to score the second goal for her team. After the 2-1 lead, Indians managed to control the match again and maintain the samescore-line till the end of first half.

 The second half started with more aggression from both sides as both the teams stepped on the ground with their game-plans. India soon earned a penalty corner but failed to materialise it. In the next moment, Japan counter-attacked and earned a penalty corner and was perfectly saved by Inderpreet. In the 57th minute, Japan’s Ayane Hirahara entered into the Indian D and scored the second goal for her team. Both the teams post that were seen to take one up in the game but failed to materialise on the opportunities. With the game tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation time the match entered the shoot out phase.

During the shoot-out, Japan converted three and Indian team managed to convert only two. Navjot Kaur and Preeti Dubey successfully converted the opportunities whereas Navneet Kaur, Deep Grace and skipper Rani failed to score.

HI Press release

Sreeja survives a scare; Srushti topples Archana

Indore, September 12, 2015: Top-ranked Manav Thakkar entered the semifinals in both the Cadet Boys and Junior Boys sections of the 11Even Sports 2015 India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today. But Srushti Haleangadi handed out junior national champion Archana Kamath a 3-2 thrashing in Cadet Girls quarterfinals in what was the only upset on the day.

Top-ranked Sreeja Akula survived a 3-4 scare against Maria Rony in Junior Girls and Archana, making amends, beat Riti Shankar 4-0 to enter the semifinals along with Priyanka Pareek and Seraha Jacob. Priyanka won against Shruti Amrute 4-1 while Seraha blanked out Srushti 4-0.

The quarterfinals in all categories also marked the exit of all but one foreign entrant in Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz Alamri, who sent Snehit Suravajjula packing in Cadet Boys with a 3-2 verdict in the tight-last eight matches. But teammate Ali Akhadrawi was not so lucky when he went down to Siddesh Pande in straight games.

Srushti, who partenered Archana, to carve out the team gold a couple of days ago made a strong comeback. Down 0-2, won the third but what made her a completely transformed player was the extended fifth game which she won 12-10. And then she completed the formality with no great resistance coming from Archana, who made several net errors.

Though Manav won the Cadet singles without a sweat against Sarthak Seth, he was made to earn his points in Junior Boys, thanks to an enterprising game by Indonesian Deepash Bhagwani. An immigrant from Uttar Pradesh, the boy from Jakarta managed to take a game off Manav, despite the latter being in good form. Earlier, Shaurya Pednekar ousted higher-ranked Manush Shah in Cadet quarter-finals, winning the match 3-1.

But the match of the day was between Sreeja and Maria. The top-ranked Sreeja, tailing 0-2, had to bring all the gains from her recent foreign exposure to the fore to outwit Maria. The latter kept her interests alive when claimed the fifth game but Sreeja’s aggressive returns and excellent backhand play reversed it all her way.

All semifinals and finals, including Junior Boys and Junior Girls doubles, will be played tomorrow, the concluding day of the championships.    

Results (All Quarterfinals*):

Cadet Boys: Manav Thakkar bt Sarthak Seth 11-6, 11-3, 11-6, Abdulaziz Alamri (KSA) bt Snehit Suravajjula 11-4, 11-8, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9, Shaurya Pednekar bt Manush Shah 11-6, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9, Parth Virmani bt Anukram Jain 11-4, 11-5, 14-12.

Cadet Girls: Srushti Haleangadi bt Archana Kamath 8-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-6, Prapti Sen bt Varuni Jaiswal 11-7, 7-11, 11-3, 15-13, Surbhi Patwari bt Diya Chitale 11-8, 11-6, 13-11, Yashini Sivasankar bt Zauresh Akasheva (KAZ) 12-10, 11-8, 11-9.

Junior Boys: Lalrin Puia bt Sanish Ambekar 11-7, 11-13, 11-4, 11-4, 11-2,Manav Thakkar bt Deepash Bhagwani (INA) 11-5, 11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 11-5, Ravindra Kotiyan bt Abhimanyu Mitra 11-8, 1-11, 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5, Siddesh Pande bt Ali Alkhadrawi (KSA) 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9.

Junior Girls: Sreeja Akula bt Maria Rony 8-11, 5-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, Seraha Jacob bt Srushti Haleangadi 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-7, Priyanka Pareek bt Shruti Amrute 7-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6, 11-7, Archana Kamath bt Riti Shankar 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, 13-11.

TTFI Press release

Lone Kazakh girl joins Indians in quarterfinals

Indore, September 11, 2015: For the first time in recent years, national champion and top-seed Manav Thakkar was involved in a two-way tie and had to wait for a while to know his qualification in the main draw of the Cadet Boys singles in the 11Even Sports 2015 India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

Manav was in a spot of bother, thanks to team mate Manush Shah who beat him 3-1 (6-11, 11-4, 11-7, 12-10) in Group 1. That was sort of an upset in the group stage but both made it to the second stage despite the hiccups.

In the same section, Group 4 too saw a tie, this time a three-way one among Snehit Suravajjulu, Anukram Jain and Ashwin Subramanian, all having similar scores of 3-0 against each other. In the end, both Snehit and Anukram edged out Ashwin on decimal points. They had all beaten the lone Bangladesh rival in the group, Antu Hossain Joy, also by the same margin.

The other two groups had clear winners in Parth Virmani and South Africa’s Adulaziz Alamri, who took the second spot in their group. In group 3, Shaurya Pednekar and Sarthak Seth made it to the second stage, which is the quarterfinals, in that order.

As for Cadet Girls, Archana Kamath Girish and Diya Chitale Parag qualified from group 1 to enter the quarterfinals. The other four groups saw Yashini Sivasankar, Srushti Haleangadi, Varuni Jaiswal, Priyanka Pareek, Surbhi Patwari, Selena Selvakumr, Prapti Sen and Kazakhstan’s Zaresh Akasheva, the lone foreign entrant to enter the quarterfinals.

With some of the Cadet Boys and Cadet Girls also taking part in the junior section, matches in both Junior Boys and Junior Girls were some way behind schedule. Since the main draw matches are slated to begin tomorrow, all group matches will be completed tonight.

However, the intense rivalry among the Indian paddlers was on view at the qualifying stage with a few group matches ending in three-way ties. There was even a case in the Cadet Girls section, where the tiebreaker calculation was used to decide the players that will make it to the second stage.

TTFI Press release

A-class performance by ‘B’ team; Bagful of medals for Indians

Indore, September 10, 2015: Ravindra Kotiyan and his partner Sanish Ambekar not only exacted a sweet revenge from Saudi Arabia’s duo of Ali Akhadrawi and Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi but also made the 11Even Sports 2015 India Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis Championships utterly an Indian show. The India B pair, propelled by Kotiyan, beat Saudi Arabia 3-1 at the Abhay Prashal here today to complete the sweep of team championship medals. Apart from the gold medals, the various teams of India won all the silver and bronze medals on offer.

With three team titles already in pocket, the Kotiyan-Ambedkar duo had to overcome the Saudi team members who had topped their group by beating India B earlier. But Kotiyan and Ambekar, learning their lessons, changed their strategy in the final to simply outwit the visitors. The Saudis had to be content with the silver.

“The doubles proved to be crucial and we combined really well after being down 2-1. That was the game changer,” admitted the duo. “I was comfortable against left-hander Ali and our strategy was to open with Sanish. Despite a good game, he lost. But I am happy to have made amends on behalf of the team,” said Kotiyan on his maiden title win.

Nervous moments

Earlier in the group match, too, India A suffered defeat at the hands of India C. Yet, they made it to the semifinals being the second team in the group. On the other hand, India B with Ravindra Kotiyan and Sanish Ambekar tested group topper and Saudi Arabian duo that spent some nervous moments.

In the opening match, Alkhadrawi went down to 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6 Ravindra Kotiyan but in the immediately ensuing match Abdulaziz nearly followed suit. He was stretched to the very limit by Sanish, only emerging successful by the very minimal margin in the decider (9-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10). The Saudis secured the doubles (11-8, 13-11, 11-1), before Alkhadrawi returned to beat Sanish 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 12-10.

India A wins girls title

Represented by Sreeja Akula and Seraha Jacob, India ‘A’ won the Junior Girls’ Team title, the first title to be decided. India A finished ahead of teammate Riti Shankar and Selena Selvakumar, representing India ‘C,’ with the India ‘B’ Team duo of Shriti Vijay Amrute and Maria Rony in the bronze medal position in the round-robin league event. The Kazakh girls, with Malika Ilkhamzhanova and Yuliya Ryabova, on duty finished fourth.

India A, within a whisker of a 3-0 defeat, when Shruti Amrute recovered from a two-game deficit to beat Sreeja Akula by the very narrowest of margins in the deciding fifth game (5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11, 13-11), before Maria Rony overcame Seraha Jacob in a rather more comfortable manner (11-4, 11-5, 11-3). With a 2-0 cushion, India ‘B’ failed to press the advantage as India A made a nice recovery.

In a tense doubles, determined by the minimal two-point margin (12-10, 16-18, 8-11, 11-9, 12-10) their recovery began. Sreeja beat Maria (11-8, 11-9, 11-8) before Seraha completed the task when she overcame Shruti (11-9, 11-1, 11-8) to win the medal.

Earlier in the day, Riti Shankar steered India C to victory against India B. Ritibeat Maria Rony 11-9, 11-7, 12-10 in the second rubber and Shruti Amrute in the fifth for 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6 verdict, with Selenadeepthi Selvakumar adding further success as she defeated Shruti 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 6-11, 11-5. The two wins for India B came in the doubles (12-10, 11-7, 11-7) and from Maria Rony in the fourth match when she downed Selena 11-6, 11-2, 11-5.

Cadet crowns

Archana Kamath and Srusthi had a lot of little difficulty in putting it across India E’s Priyanka Pareek and Saundriya Pathak. A lot was depended on Archana but Priyanka, who has had a good outing here, played brilliantly to stretch the final. Priyanka had it sewn up when, in the fourth game, she led 8-6 and 9-7 against Archana. But three easy points to Archana turned out to be the game changer for India A squad. Archana, after squandering two match points, held on to the third and win the title.  She had missed it at Goa last year.

As for the duo of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, it was short of a cakewalk against India D’s Raegan Albuquerque and Shaurya Pednekar. The top-seeded team made the final a one-sided affair.

The singles events begin from tomorrow with the finals slated for Sunday.

Results (Team championships):

Cadet Boys: Final: India A bt India D 3-0 (Manush Shah bt Shaurya Pednekar 11-9, 11-2, 13-15, 11-9, Manav Thakkar bt Raegan Albuquerque 11-3, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10, Manav/Manush bt Shaurya/Raegn 11-7, 11-9, 11-9);Semifinals: India A bt India C 3-0 (Manush Shah bt Snehit Suravajjula 1-12, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, Manav Thakkar bt Shivjit Lamba 11-2, 11-5, 11-3, Manav/Manush bt Snehit/Shivijit 11-9, 11-3, 8-11, 11-5); India D bt India E 3-2 (Raegan Albuquerque bt Anukram Jain 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, Shaurya Pednekar lost to Parth Virmani 8-11, 6-11, 8-11, Raegan/Shaurya lost to Parth/Anukram 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10, Raegan Albuquerque lost to Parth Virmani 4-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, Shaurya Pednekar bt Anukram Jain 11-3, 11-8, 11-2).

Cadet Girls: Final: India A bt India E 3-1 (Srushti Haleangadi lost to Priyanka Pareek 14-13, 11-8, 3-11, 10-12, 7-11, Archana Kamath Girish bt Saundriya Pathak 11-4, 11-5, 11-3, Achana/Srushti bt Priyanka/Saundriya 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, Archana Kamath bt Priyanka Pareek 9-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-4, 14-12);Semifinals: India A bt India B 3-0 (Srushti Haleangadi bt Varuni Jaiswal 11-8, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5, Archana Kamath Girish bt Diya Chaitale Parag 11-8, 14-12, 11-8, Srushti/Archana bt Varruni/Diya 11-3, 9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9); India E bt India C 3-1 (Priyanaka Pareek bt Tanisi Kirtani 6-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9, Saundarya Pathak lost to Prapti Sen 8-11, 11-13, 6-11, Saundarya/Priyanka bt Tanisi/Prapti 11-7, 1-11, 13-11, 12-10, Priyanka Pareek bt Prapti Sen 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 12-10).

Junior Boys: Final: India B bt Saudi Arabia 3-1 (Sanish Ambekar lost to Ali Alkhadrawi 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 4-11,  Ravindra Kotiyan bt Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, Ravindra/Sanish bt Alkhadrawi/Abdulaziz 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, Ravindra Kotiyan bt Alkhadrawi 11-4, 11-3, 11-7; Semifinals: India B bt India C 3-0 (Ravindra Kotiyan bt Abhimanyu Mitra 11-4, 11-8, 11-7, Sanish Ambekar bt Siddhesh Pande 11-6, 11-8, 11-5, Ravindra/Sanish bt Siddhesh/Abhimanyu 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6); Saudi Arabia bt India A 3-1 (Abdulaziz Bushulaybi lost to Lalrin Puia 8-11, 6-11, 10-12, Ali Alkhadrawi bt Utkarsh Gupta 11-6, 11-4, 11-13, 11-5, Ali/Abdulaziz bt 9-11, 11-5, 4-11, Puia/Gupta 11-2, 11-5, 11-8, Ali Alkhadrawi bt Lalrin Puia 11-7, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9).

Junior Girls: India A (gold), India C (silver), India B (bronze).  

A TTFI Press release