Bangalore edge out Chennai to enter final

Hosts to lock horns with Ahmedabad for title

Favourites Puravankara Bangalore did not come out firing on all cylinders but still showed enough resolve to douse the fire of Take Chennai and march into the final of the Louis Philippe Cup here on Friday.

With Anura Rohana in blazing form right throughout the last two days and two-time European Tour winner SSP Chowrasia regaining his touch, the hosts needed to produce a special effort if they were to justify their top billing.

Although they were far from at their best, Anirban Lahiri and Abhishek Jha got their act together when the chips were down to power their team into the final following a gritty 2-1 victory over the dark horses at the Karnataka Golf Association.

In the title clash on Saturday, the hosts will take on Navaratna Ahmedabad, who defeated Dev Ellora Chandigarh 2-1 in another tightly-contested semifinal.

Taking on Rohana in the third singles matchplay clash, Lahiri knew he had a scrap on his hands against the Sri Lankan who has dominated the challenging course with consummate ease. An attacking golfer by instinct, Lahiri announced his intentions rightaway when he clinched the opening hole with a brilliant approach shot that landed the ball just five feet from the pin for a birdie.

However, things began to slide for Lahiri from the second when he bogeyed to concede the hole before losing the third and fourth to go 2-down. Struggling with his short game --  there were many instances when he missed simple regulation putts -- Lahiri’s problems on greens made things easier for Rohana.

Searching desperately for an inspiration to pick his game up, Lahiri found it in his team-mate. Manav Jaini, playing a hole ahead, fired the tournament’s first hole-in-one on the eighth. Pumped up, the Bangalorean then found his range, winning three holes on the trot -- eighth, ninth and 10th -- to regain the lead.

Rohana arrested the sudden shift in momentum by claiming the par-5 11th with a brilliant chip and putt before surrendering it on the 12th when he three-putted from the edge of the green.

By the time the duo crossed over to the 16th green, Chennai’s Chowrasia had crushed Jaini 3&2 to give his team a 1-0 lead while Jha was slugging it with seasoned Gaurav Ghei with two holes left and 1-up lead. Jha eventually sealed a 2-up victory on the 18th, meaning Lahiri just needed to halve the closing hole to seal the tie for Bangalore.

Lahiri then wrapped things up by winning the 18th after Rohana found the woods twice.

Results: Semifinals: Puravankara Bangalore bt Take Chennai 2-1 (Abhishek Jha bt Guarav Ghei 2-up, Manav Jaini lt to SSP Chowrasia 2&3, Anirban Lahiri bt Anura Rohana 2-up); Navaratna Ahmedabad bt Dev Ellora Chandigarh 2-1 (Mithun Perera bt Harendra P Gupta 2-up, Vinod  Kumar lt to Sujjan Singh 1&2; Vikrant Chopra bt Gaganjeet Bhullar 4&3).
5-8 placings: 3C Delhi bt Ansal API Lucknow 2-1 (Shiv Kapur bt Vijay Kumar 3&1, Om Prakash Chouhan lt to Md Siddikur Rahman 1&2, Rashid Khan bt Sanjay Kumar 3&2); AVT Kolkata bt Oxford Group West 2-1 (Chiragh Kumar lt to Ashok Kumar 1-down, Feroz Ali Mollah bt Mukesh Kumar 1&2, Shankar Das bt Vivek Bhandari 3&2).
Ninth-place play-off:  DLF  Gurgaon bt Shubhkamna 3-0 (Digvijay Singh bt Ashok Kumar 19th hole; Himmat Singh Rai bt Gaurav Pratap Singh 4&2, Jyoti Randhawa bt Jeev Milkha Singh 3&2).