Upsets galore in cadet girls in state table tennis meet

LUCKNOW: Two major upsets marked the opening day of the 33rd Junior UP State Table Tennis Championship ‘UP Cup’ at Ghaziabad on Friday as unseeded players dictated terms against the seeded ones. Unseeded Ankita Gupta of Ghaziabad shocked her citymate and second seed Meeta Dixit 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7 in a second round match in the cadet girls category, before another unseeded paddler Yashika Tewari of Ghaziabad brushed aside fourth seed Vanya Singh of Gautam Budh Nagar 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 in style. Top seed Manya Ahuja of Moradabad notched up a convincing win against Palak Magharan of Gzbiabad 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, whereas third seed Navya Raj of Singrauli beat Ghaziabad’s Kavya Choudhary 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8. It was an easy going for the seeded players in the sub-junior boys category on Day One in the third round. Top seed Divyansh Srivastava of Lucknow beat Pransho Gupta of Ghaziabad 11-9. 11-6, 12-10. Playing true to his reputation, Divyansh, a trainee of Yogendra Agarwal at the Northern Railway TT Academy here, won the first two games at ease. But he had the real trouble in the third game when Gupta too came up with some stunning returns and tapping.

However, Divyansh kept his nerves under control and finished the game at 12-10. Second seed Shivam Chandra of Ghaziabad beat Shivam Chaurasia of Sultanpur 11-5, 11-4, 11-9, third seed Vibhor Garg of Ghaziabad beat Ashu Vishwakarma of Renukoot 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 14-12, and fourth seed Akshat Tyagi of Ghaziabad beat Dhairya Makhija of Faizabad 11-5, 15-13, 11-6.

FINE BOWLING

Abhi Raj Singh (5/11) bowled a deadly spell as Youth Cricket Club scored a convincing sevenwicket win against Shakumbari Cricket Club Red in a league match of the CAL’s Under-14 Cricket Tournament here on Friday. In other matches of the day, Young Challenger Club defeated Asha Foundation by six runs, whereas Multi Cricket Academy beat LDA Coaching Blue by six wickets.

TRIALS

Trials to pick probables from Lucknow for the Ranji Trophy in the new season will take place here on Monday. More details can be had from the CAL office in Gomti Nagar.