Prajakta Sawant and Chirag Shetty played their part to perfection as the three doubles combinations carried Airport Authority of India past Telangana 3-2, in four hours, for its maiden entry into the team final of the National badminton championship here on Wednesday.
After Petroleum duly took its place in the final, AAI stared at defeat after losing the two singles and trailing by a game in the men’s doubles.
Chirag Shetty, who won the admiration of Chief coach P. Gopi Chand with his display, and his partner M. R. Arjun held their nerves on the big points and bounced right back to stop Rahul Yadav and Arjun Reddy 20-22, 21-11, 21-17 in 45 minutes and kept AAI alive in the contest.
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Thereafter, Prajakta and J. K. Malavika rallied brilliantly following the loss of the first game and went on to overcome a 10-13 deficit in the decider to win in 55 minutes.
With the tie locked at 2-2, there was a 20-minute rest period for Prajakta, who was lined up to play back-to-back matches. She joined hands with Chirag to script a narrow 21-19, 21-19 victory by converting the fourth tie-point.
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Petroleum was expectedly tested by Maharashtra but the 3-0 margin does not reflect the closeness of the contest.
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The results:
Team championship: Semifinals: Petroleum bt Haryana 3-0 (B. Sai Praneeth bt Aman Kumar 21-10, 21-16; Rituparna Das bt Shivani Singh 21-8, 21-13; K. Tarun & Arun Vishnu bt Ketan Chahal & Saurabh Sharma 19-21, 21-6, 21-16).
Airport Authority of India (AAI) bt Telangana 3-2 (Kusal Dharamamer lost to Siril Varma 15-21, 14-21; Rasika Raje lost to G. Vrushali 22-24, 14-21; M. R. Arjun & Chirag Shetty bt Rahul Yadav & Arjun Reddy 20-22, 21-11, 21-17.
Prajakta Sawant & J. K. Malavika bt G. Vrushali & Sri Krishna Priya 18-21, 21-17, 21-17; Prajakta Sawant & Chirag Shetty bt Sri Krishna Priya & Arjun Kumar Reddy 21-19, 21-19).
Quarterfinals: Petroleum bt Maharashtra 3-0 (R.M.V. Gurusaidutt bt Harsheel Dani 25-23, 17-21, 21-18; G. Ruthvika Shivani bt Neha Pandit 21-12, 21-15; B. Sai Praneeth & Pranaav Chopra bt Akshay Dewalkar & Akshay Raut 21-17, 12-21, 21-17).
Haryana bt Chandigarh 3-1 (Ketan Chahal bt Oscar Bansal 22-24, 21-12, 21-17; Shivani Singh lost to Kailash 13-21, 23-21, 14-21.
Ketan & Saurabh Sharma bt Sachin Garg & Varun Sharma 21-16, 21-16; Komal Antil & Lalita Dahiya bt Kailash & Kawaljeet Kaur 21-14, 21-16).
AAI bt Uttar Pradesh 3-1 (Pratul Joshi bt Arshalan Naqvi 21-19, 21-15; Rasika Raje lost to Riya Mookerjee 21-11, 10-21, 16-21.
M.R. Arjun & Chirag Shetty bt Shivam Sharma & Vinay Kumar Singh 21-8, 16-21, 21-12; J. K. Malvika & Prajakta Sawant bt Shruti Mishra & Samriddhi Singh 21-15, 21-6).
Telangana bt Assam 3-0 (Siril Varma bt Hirak Jyoti Neog 21-15, 21-12; G. Vrushali bt Chimran Kalita 21-10, 21-15.
Rahul Yadav & Arjun Reddy bt Anjan Buragohain & Ranjan Buragohain 21-12, 21-14).