The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : MG to meet Bangalore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 10, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Badminton

MG to meet Bangalore

KOLENCHERRY: Drums, cymbals, whistles and wild dancing, all rare at a shuttle game, were in action in the stands in the all-India inter-university badminton championship semifinals here on Friday evening.

And there was plenty to celebrate too for the locals as the Calicut University women and host Mahatma Gandhi men marched into the finals at the St. Peter’s College stadium.

With a smart display, Indian women’s No. 4 Aparna Balan helped Calicut stun varsities National champion Delhi 2-0 while Mahatma Gandhi, Kottayam, blanked Nagarjuna 3-0.

“I did not expect our team to win,” admitted Aparna after the victory. “Our big lead in the doubles decider helped us.”

Lopsided affair

The women’s opening singles, between the State champions of Kerala and Delhi, was a lopsided affair with Aparna going for a push-pull game against Mohita Sahdev, ranked No. 34 in the country. Aparna forced Mohita to the forehand corner with some high tosses and then pulled her to the net with her clever crosscourt drops.

But the 21-year-old Aparna, from Kozhikode’s Providence College and supported by Indian Oil Corporation, and Annie Cherian were forced to sweat by Delhi’s Gauri Chopra and Meenakshi in doubles. But in the decider, the two trained their guns on Meenakshi to win a majority of their points.

The Mahatma Gandhi men had a much easier time against Acharya Nagarjuna and entered the final after 16 years. The host will meet Bangalore men in a repeat of the South Zone final held a couple of days earlier, while the Calicut women will meet last year’s runner-up Mumbai.

The results: Men: Semifinals: Mahatma Gandhi bt Acharya Nagarjuna (Guntur) 3-0 (Alvin Francis bt Ch. Suresh 21-18, 21-18; P.H. Suraj bt G. Suresh Babu 21-19, 21-11; Sankar Gopan & K.S. Hershen bt M. Anil Kumar Raju & I.S. Naveen Kumar 21-19, 21-12). Bangalore bt Delhi 3-0 (B.S. Phalgun bt Sachin Rawat 21-11, 21-16; Mohit Kamat bt Saurav Kapoor 17-21, 21-9, 21-9; Harshill & Romit Dodeja bt Sourav & Abhishek Ahlawat 19-17, Abhishek retired with knee injury). Quarterfinals: Bangalore bt Punjab (Chandigarh) 3-1; Mahatma Gandhi bt GNDU (Amritsar) 3-1; Nagarjuna bt MDU (Rohtak) 3-1; Delhi bt Anna (Chennai) 3-1.