Semifinalists spotted

By Bobby Sinha

KASAULI, APRIL 25. The team event for the T.P. Khosla Trophy reached its penultimate phase when Railways (125 V.Ps), Maharashtra `A' (120.5) Maharashtra `B' (118) and U.P. (113.5) reached the semifinals of by virtue of finishing the quarterfinal round robin matches at the top four places.

Railways which was leading at the end of third round with 59 V.Ps. finished at the top having won all matches in the last four rounds; against Maharashtra `A' (18-12), and other three matches against Delhi, OFSCB and U.P. by an identical margin of 16-14.

Both the teams from Maharashtra qualified for the semifinals. Maharashtra which has a record number of nine inter- State bridge titles fielded two well balanced teams. Both `A' and `B' teams made the issue safe having registered big wins in the last two matches. While Maharashtra `A' swamped Karnataka 25-5 and Gujarat 23-7, Maharashtra `B' trounced Gujarat by 25-5 and defeated Delhi by 21-9.

U.P. which topped Group `A' in the qualifying league stood fourth to figure in the semifinals. U.P. failed to give a steady performance. However, an outright win (25-5) over Delhi served as a tonic and U.P. survived.

The four teams that bid adieu were Karnataka (99.5), Delhi (95), OFSCB (93) and Gujarat (87). The efforts of three teams viz: Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat were undone when they fared badly in the last two matches. Karnataka which finished at the top of its group in the qualifying round was in a bad shape in its last two matches against Maharashtra `A' and OFSCB (8-22).

Similarly Gujarat went down against Maharashtra `B' and Maharashtra `A' (7-23). Delhi in turn went down against U.P. by 5-25 and Karnataka by 9-21. OFSCB went out of race at the half way mark.

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Section  : Sport
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