Abhinav, Pranav scrape through

MUSCAT: Pranav Vinod and Abhinav Parasa struggled before making progress in the boys’ under-14 singles at the 2nd quarterly Junior Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club Muscat sponsored by New Makha Enterprises.

Pranav fought off the spirited challenge posed by Yash Tanna before rallying from a game down to win 9-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9. Abhinav Parasa also scored a hard-fought 11-7, 1416, 9-11, 11-3, 15-13 victory over Himesh Haridas to enter the second round.

In other matches of the boys’ under-14 singles, S. Pranav defeated Nithin Chandrashekar 11-7, 11-5, 11-7, Avinash Menon beat Hemil Ganatra 11-8, 11-4, 11-0, Subash Pillai defeated G. Akash 11-6, 11-8, 11-6, Armaan Sattikar cruised to a 11-0, 112, 11-1 win over Rahul Rajan, Shounak Kelkar downed Alen Tom 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 and P. Sai Sharan secured a 12-10, 11-8, 11-8 win over Niranjan Raman.

Shounak Kelkar topped Group A in the U-10 singles round-robin phase with four wins. In his last league match, Shounak demolished Sanshikha Mamotra 11-0, 11-2, 11-0.

In other matches of the same group, MSSR Pradyumna defeated Maryam Zohair to finish second in his group. In GroupB, N. Raman beat M. Srivastava 11-7, 11-3, 11-4, H. Subramanian beat A. Ramesh 11-6, 11-4, 116, Hariharan defeated Manasi 11-4, 11-6, 11-3. N. Raman beat Hariharan 11-9, 11-5, 11-8.

Subramanian to take the top spot in his group. MUSCAT: The Muscat Pharmacy & Stores LLC and Khimji Ramdas co-sponsored Omani Nationals Team will leave for the UAE tomorrow to participate in the third T20 Gulf Cup 2012 scheduled to be held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from June 14 to 16.

The Omani Nationals Team will be led by His Highness Qais Khalid Qais Al Said who was vice-captain of the Oman National Senior Team that participated in the ICC World T20 tournament held in the UAE held in March 2012.

His deputy on the tour will be Khalid Moosa Murad Al Balushi.

The officials accompanying the team are Dad Mohammed Al Balushi ( manager), ACC Level 3 qualified coach IkhtiarKazmi will be the coach while Mohammed Anwar Mahrab will be his assistant.

The Omani Team who were winners of the first Gulf Cup and runner-up in the second Gulf Cup will play in the inaugural match against Kuwait commencing at 6.30pm on Thursday followed by the match against Saudi Arabia at 9.30pm on Friday and the last match against hosts UAE on June 16 commencing at 9.30pm.

Unlike the past two editions, where a final was played between the two top teams in the league stage, the tournament winner this year will be awarded to the team that tops the league.

If two teams end up on an equal point, the winner will be decided by a head-to-head clash. Should three teams end up on equal points the winner will be decided on the Net Run Rate.

Oman squad: Qais bin Khalid Al Said, Khalid Moosa Al Balushi, Amit Sampat, Sufyan Mohammed, Mohsin Gul Baig Al Balushi, Yousuf Rahim Bakhsh Mahmood, Nadil Yousuf Pir Mohammed Al Balushi, Niyaz Ahmed Ghulam Al Balushi, Ahmed Mohammed Mahmood Al Balushi, Abbas Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Rafeeq Mohammed Siyad Al Balushi, Mohammed Ishaq Ghulam Al Balushi, Waleed Rahim Bakhsh Al Balushi, Mohammed Ali Rasool Al Balushi;

Reserves: Rashad Mohammed Qader Bakhsh Al Balushi, Issa Rahim Bakhsh Mahmood, Asif Abdul Samad Mureed Al Balushi, Sharif Pindook Noor Al Balushi;

Officials: Dad Mohammed Al Balushi (manager), Ikhtiar Kazmi (coach) and Mohammed Anwar Al Balushi (assistant coach).