Maharashtra Sub-Junior teams enjoy successful outings on opening day
Maharashtra’s boys’ and girls’ had a successful day winning both their matches in the Sub-Junior Team Championship of the LIC of India sponsored 44th SubJunior National and InterState Carrom Championship, organized by the All India Carrom Federation and hosted by the Maharashtra Carrom Association at the Halari Visa Oswal Samaj Hall, Dadar (East) on Tuesday.
The Maharashtra lads did well to overcome Pondicherry 2-1 in a Pool-G encounter. Maharashtra’s David Bonal after a good start succumbed to nerves and lost the singles tie to Naveen Kumar 14-2, 1-13, 8-13. But, Maharashtra remained in the fight when Ojas Jadhav defeated Parth 15-2, 21-0 in the second singles and on the adjacent board the Maharashtra pair of Om Taware and Mayuresh Naik got the better of Sebastian and Vijayaganpathy 22-11, 25-6 to clinch the win for the home side.
The Maharashtra girl’s came up with strong solid performance and had things much their own way as they sidelined Andhra Pradesh by a convincing 3-0 margin in Pool-B. In the singles matches, Keshar Nirgun beat Saraswathi 20-0, 20-6 and Amulya Rajula scored over Haritha 7-8, 6-5, 25-0. The Maharashtra’s doubles team of Shruti Sonavanel and Akanksha Kadam proved too strong as they blanked the opposition pairing of Rupa Devi and Ramya Mounika 22-0, 25-0 to complete the win.
In a well-fought match Boys Pool-C match, Hyderabad overcame a spirited Goa by a close 2-1 margin. Hyderabad and Goa shared the two singles before the southern states doubles duo of Sabeer Jameel and V. Girivardhan prevailed over the Goan pair of Vinay Kerkar and Vishwesher Maje 17-1, 15-5 to clinch an exciting win for Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Tuba Sehar and Nidhi Gupta from Chandigarh overcame early jitters and the loss of the opening game to put it across the Andhra Pradesh pairing of A. Bhavani/Sk. Husna posting a 16-25, 25-7, 25-11 win in a women’s doubles first round match of the 24th All India Federation Cup Carrom Tournament 2017-18, conducted simultaneously.
However, the Reserve Bank of India duo of Sangeeta Chandorkar and Kavita Somanchi easily cruised past the CAG combo of Rinki Ranjan and Rashmi Ranjan winning in straight games at 25-15, 25-13.
The Tamil Nadu combination of R. Gayatri and L. Amshabarthini also enjoyed a straight games 25-5, 25-15 win against the Andhra Pradesh rivals of R. Rajyalakshmi and L. Haripriya to march into the second round.
Earlier, the Maharashtra Carrom Association honoured and felicitated B. Bangaru Babu, founder General Secretary of All India Carrom Federation and International Carrom Federation during the opening ceremony.