ONGC retains men’s title, IOCL defends women’s crown

ONGC and IOCL retained the men’s and women’s titles in the 41st PSPB Inter Unit Table Tennis tournament here on Wednesday.

In the men’s team championship, ONGC started strongly as Harmeet Desai beat IOCL veteran Sharath Kamal 3-1 (11-2, 10-12, 11-7, 11-2).

The IOCL then pulled one match back as Manav Thakker beat reigning champion G Sathiyan 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 12-10).

However, ONGC won the next two matches as A Amalraj beat Priyanuj Bhattacharya 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-6) and Sathiyan was able to find the depth to beat Kamal 3-1 (11-8, 5). -11, 11-9, 11-7).

There was a tight battle for the women’s team championship and exciting games were seen.

In a tight contest, IOCL’s Archana Kamath held her nerve to beat veteran Mouma Das of OIL 3-2 (11-5, 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 11-6).

Talented youngster Yashaswani Ghorpade then showed his immense potential as he defeated Krittwika Sinha Roy 3-1 (12-10, 13-11, 2-11, 12-10). Reeth Rishya then pulled IOCL ahead as she beat Trisha Gogoi 3-1 (11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5).

At this stage, it was crucial how the next match between Archana Kamath and Yashaswani Ghorpade would go. After Archana won the first game 11-3, it looked like it would be a one-sided tie, but then Yashaswani, who showed tremendous grit, won the next two games 11-7, 11-5.

Archana then won the next game 11-8, but in the decisive final game, Yashaswani beat her 12-10 to level the score at 2-2. It was then on to the final game where Krittwika held her nerve to beat Mouma Das 3-0 (11-8, 13-11, 11-8) to help IOCL retain their title.