The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Petroleum repeats the ‘double’

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Sport - Table Tennis

Petroleum repeats the ‘double’

Amitabha Das Sharma

— PHOTO: Ranjeet Kumar

TERRIFIC SHOW: (From left) Subhajit Saha, Sharath Kamal and A. Amal Raj of Petroleum were too good for Railways.

PATNA: Petroleum carried the tag of invincibility with relative ease to another season with its men’s and women’s teams retaining the crowns in the 70th inter-State table tennis here on Thursday.

This was the seventh season in succession that Petroleum realised the double, keeping to its name the Barna-Bellack Cup and the Jayalakshmi Cup the trophies for supremacy in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.

Petroleum thumped its perennial final opponent Railways 3-0 for the men’s title, while the women’s team prevailed (3-0 again) over North Bengal, the same opponent it had beaten in the previous edition at Siliguri (West Bengal).

Petroleum won half the battle showcasing the National individual champion and India’s most successful name in international circuit A. Sharath Kamal, who proved too superior for his opponents.

While Sharath toyed with Anirban Nadi, Subhajit Saha got the better of southpaw Sourav Chakraborty to give Railways a 2-0 lead. Amal Raj wrapped up the proceedings beating Sayan Paul Roy.

National champion Poulami Ghatak made a remarkable comeback from being down two games against North Bengal’s Ankita Das to win the first match for Petroleum. This was the most contested part of the women’s final as Neha Aggarwal and Madhurika Patkar made short work of next two North Bengal players, Nandita Saha and Kasturi Chakraborty.

The results: Team championship: Men: Final: Petroleum bt Railways 3-0 (A. Sharath Kamal bt Anirban Nandi 11-7, 11-6, 11-4; Subhajit Saha bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-6, 11-9, 11-5; Amal Raj bt Sayan Paul Roy 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3).

Semifinals: Petroleum bt Gujarat 3-0; Railways bt North Bengal 3-0.

Women: Final: Petroleum bt North Bengal 3-0 (Poulami Ghatak bt Ankita Das 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8; Neha Aggarwal bt Nandita Saha 13-11, 11-7, 11-6; Madhurika Patkar bt Kasturi 11-5, 11-4, 11-6). Semifinals: Petroleum bt Maharashtra ‘A’ 3-0; N. Bengal bt W. Bengal 3-0.

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