PSPB teams romp to title wins
Winning is a habit and who knows it better than Petroleum Sports Promotion Board. The men’s team helped themselves to yet another team title when they downed Railway Sports Promotion Board 3- 0, while their women beat Airports Authority of India 3- 1 to retain their crown in the AAI 48th all India inter- institutional championships in Coimbatore on Friday.
This was PSPB’s men 17th crown while it was the 15th time their women lift the trophy.
G. Sathiyan opened for PSPB, giving them a decisive start. With his fast forehand and excellent blocks, it proved too hot for Anirban Ghosh of Railways. He, however, managed to drag it a bit, taking the third game after four deuces at 15- 13. That was the only leverage he enjoyed as Sathiyan cleaned him up to put PSPB on victory path.
Achanta Sharath Kamal trailed 0- 2 against Ravindra Kotiyan but the World No. 33 knew he could always catch up with him. Indeed, he did that in style as he took the last three games with ease for a comfortable lead.
In the third tie, despite losing the opening game, Amalraj played true to himself to outwit the Railways man Pankaj Vishwakarma.
In the women’s final, AAI showed character to challenge the authority of PSPB and to some extent, they succeeded in sending a strong message across. Mallika Bhandarkar, particularly in her reverse singles, and Selenadeepthi proved they were no pushovers as Madhurika Patkar in the first tie and later Manika found to their chagrin. Meanwhile, Selena took a tie off Sutirtha, which only added to the PSPB pressure.
Yet, with Team India players in their ranks, PSPB emerged winners. Madhurika Patkar bt Mallika Bhandarkar 9- 11, 11- 7, 11- 8, 11- 2, following which Manika Batra got the better of Surbhi Patwari 11- 5, 11- 8, 12- 14, 10- 12, 11- 9.
Sutirtha Mukherjee lost to Selenadeepthi Selvakumar 11- 5, 6- 11, 10- 12, 13- 11 before Batra defeated Bhandarkar 11- 8, 9- 11, 16- 14, 13- 11 in the reverse singles.