Defending champion Petroleum encountered little difficulty in surpassing its group opponents in all the four categories — men, women and youth boys and girls — in the team championships of the 42nd inter-institutional table tennis here on Wednesday.
The other seeded teams like Railways, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Central Revenue Sports Board (CRSB) and Food Corporation of India also reached the next round.
The only aberration was the Group F leader Dena Bank, which suffered successive losses before crashing out in the first round.
In the women’s category, Indian Bank put up a real good show. The team, comprising V. Sneha, K.K. Narmada and Sumana R. Krishnan, defeated a strong Air India side 3-2 in a Group C match.
Only Mallika Bhandarkar managed to put up some resistance winning both her matches while the rest of her colleagues surrendered. Dena Bank women, however, did well to top Group D by toppling a strong outfit like Railways. The win also ensured them a place in the quarterfinals.
In the six-group men’s team format, leaders like Petroleum, Railways, AAI and CRSB from the first four groups make it directly to the quarterfinals. The second placed teams in the top four groups and the top two teams each from Group E and F fight it out in a play-off to advance.
Petroleum, having almost all of the high-ranking players of the country in its fold, decided to rest the top-ranked Achanta Sharath Kamal for stage one of the competition.
The results:
Men: Round III:
Group A: Postal Sports Control Board bt Air Force Sports Control Board 3-0; Group B: LIC w/o Coal India;
Group C: Defence Accounts Sports Control Board bt Ordnance Factories SPB 3-0; Group D: RBI bt Department of Atomic Energy 3-0.
Group E: Air India bt Major Ports 3-0; Group F: Dena Bank bt BSNL 3-0.
Round II: Group C: AAI bt Defence Accounts 3-0; Group D : Central Revenue Sports Board bt RBI 3-0.
Group E: FCI bt Air India 3-0; Group F: IAAD bt Dena Bank 3-0; ESIC bt BSNL 3-0.
Women: Round II: Group A: Petroleum bt RBI 3-0; Group B: AAI bt Postal SCB 3-0; Group C: Indian Bank bt Air India 3-2; Group D: Dena Bank bt Railways 3-1.
Round I: Group A: Petroleum bt IAAD 3-0; Group B: AAI bt LIC 3-0; Group C: Air India bt ESIC 3-0; Group D: Railways w/o BSNL; Dena Bank bt Defence Accounts SCB 3-1.
