Pint-sized Anika hogs limelight in table tennis
LUCKNOW: Ghaziabad’s Anika Gupta finds it hard to see the full table as she is under-12 and is a growing kid. But the way she smashes the ball, both forehand and backhand, she looked like a pocket dynamite in the game.
In her third round match in the cadet girls singles at the first UP State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament on Friday, top seeded Anika didn’t show any mercy to Ashwika Arora of Bareilly while winning the tie 11-2, 11-1, 11-3 in straight games, at the Integral University here.
After conceding just two points in the opening game, pintsized Anika wrapped up the second game in just a few minutes to take 2-0 lead. Though Ashwika tried to show some courage in the third game, sending two perfect backhand volleys, Anika didn’t bother much and captured the game at ease. Third seed Suhani Mahajan of Ghaziabad was beaten by Kanpur’s Shristi Mishra 12-10, 11-8, 11-7, before fourth seed Aadya Tyagi of Lucknow losing to Ghiazabad’s Disha 5-11, 9-11, 5-11 also in straight games.
THRILLING WIN
Asha Foundation scored a thrilling three-wicket win against hosts Sandeep Cricket Academy Red in a league match of the Sandeep Trophy Under-16 Cricket Tournament, at the RDSO Stadium here on Friday.
BRIEF SCORES Sandeep Cricket Academy Red 165 for 9 in 45 overs
(Anurag Pal 34, Kuldeep Srivastava 30, Sneh Kumar 30, Ritesh Shukla 3 for 21, Himanshu Kashyap 3 for 36, Ashutosh Mishra 2 for 33) lost to Asha Foundation 166 for 7 in 42.2 overs (Ashraf 55, Aryan Kshitiz 36, Ashwani Yadav 3 for 15, Mohit Vishwakarma 2 for 38).
BIG VICTORY
KD Singh Babu Trainees XI scored a convincing nine-wicket win against Panthers Cricket Academy in a league match of the Under-12 Summer Cricket Series, at the NER Stadium here on Friday. BRIEF SCORES PCA 138 in 34.4 overs (Prashant 27, Shubha Maurya 3 for 18, Ali Abidi 2 for 20) lost to KDSBT XI 139 for 1 in 23.1 overs (Anshul Verma 52).