ONGC and IOCL won the men’s and women’s team titles

Defending champion ONGC retained the men’s title by defeating IOCL 3-1, while IOCL retained its women’s team title from OIL 3-2 in the 41st PSPB Inter Unit Table Tennis Tournament hosted by EIL at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday. ONGC also wrapped up the Veterans Team Title with a 3-0 win over HPCL.

ONGC started strongly as Harmeet Desai played a quality game to beat veteran Sharat Kamal 3-1. The IOCL then pulled one match back as Manav Thakker beat reigning national champion G Sathiyan 3-0. However, ONGC won the next two matches as A Amalraj beat Priyanuj Bhattacharya 3-0 and G Sathiyan was able to find the depth to beat Sharat Kamal 3-1.

The women’s team championships saw a tight battle and exciting games. In a tight contest, Archana Kamath (IOCL) held her nerve to beat veteran Mouma Das 3-2. Talented youngster Yashaswani Ghorpade then showed his immense potential as he defeated Krittwika Sinha Roy 3-1.

Reeth Rishya then pulled IOCL ahead as she beat Trisha Gogoi 3-1. At this point it was crucial how the next match between Archana Kamath and Yashaswani Ghorpade would go. When Archana won the first game 11-3, it looked like it was going to be a one-sided affair, but then Yashaswani, who showed tremendous grit, won the next two games. Archana then won the next game 11-8, but in the deciding final, Yashaswani defeated her 12-10 to level the tie between the two teams at 2-2.

Then there was the final game where Krittwika held her nerve to beat Mouma Das 3-0 to help IOCL retain the women’s team title.

In the veteran category, ONGC was very strong and comfortably beat team HPCL 3-0