West Bengal’s decision not to play Poulomi Ghatak, the second seed here, backfired as it lost to Maharashtra 3-1 in the women’s table tennis team final of the National Games at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Monday.
With five of the eight singles seeds in its ranks, Bengal was clearly the strongest team here. But, with National champion Mouma Das struggling with the conditions in the huge air-conditioned hall and losing both her semifinal matches in the morning, one thought that Poulomi — runner-up at the recent Nationals — would play in the trophy-decider. But, strangely, she did not. “It was a team decision,” said Poulomi.
Pooja Sahasrabudhe, the singles fourth seed, played a huge role in defending champion Maharashtra’s victory, defeating the third-seeded Ankita Das in the opening match and then top seed Mouma in the fourth singles. Madhurika Patkar, who has an impressive head-to-head record against Mouma, defeated the National champion to pave the way for an easy Maharashtra win.
“We were not sure we would win because Bengal is so strong with Mouma, Poulomi, Ankita and Mousumi,” said Madhurika after the triumph. “But, we had hope because everybody in our team had a 50-50 chance against our rival players. So, we just gave our best.”
The day saw Mouma, shockingly, lose four straight matches, but the 30-year-old blamed it on the conditions. “This is the first time I am losing four matches in a day. The conditions were difficult to adjust to. The ball was moving this way and that,” explained Mouma. But, she said the lessons learnt would strengthen her in the singles event.
The results (team championship): Women’s final:Maharashtra bt West Bengal 3-1 (Pooja Sahasrabudhe bt Ankita Das 11-6, 11-6, 11-5; Madhurika Patkar bt Mouma Das 11-7, 6-11, 13-11, 12-10; Charvi Rajkumar lost to Krittwika Sinha Roy 11-8, 12-10, 6-11, 5-11, 9-11; Pooja bt Mouma 11-6, 6-11, 11-13, 11-7, 11-6).
Semifinals: Maharashtra bt Tamil Nadu 3-2; West Bengal bt Delhi 3-2.
Men’s semifinals: Tamil Nadu bt Maharashtra 3-1; Gujarat bt West Bengal 3-0.