PSPB men move into title round

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men were all set to retain the team championship title after beating Airports Authority of India (AAI) 3-1 in the semifinals of the Inter-Institutional Table Tennis event at the District Indoor Hall here on Friday. 

 
In the final, the defending champions will take on Railway Sports Promotion Board men, who were stretched by a determined Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the other semifinal before winning 3-1. 

PSPB women too entered the final routing Indian Bank 3-0 while AAI prevailed over RSPB 3-1 in the other semis to set up the title clash. 

Both the finals are slated for Saturday.

PSPB men had benched both Soumyadeep Roy and Anthony Amalraj while preferring youngsters Sanil Shetty, Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai.

Southpaw Sanil played an excellent match against Nithin Thiruvengadam to win 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9.

Then Ghosh made short work of Raj Mondal winning 11-8, 11-6, 14-12.  
PSPB suffered a setback when Desai lost to Sushmit Sriram, AAI’s main player, 10-12, 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11. But Ghosh trounced Thiruvengadam 3-1 to wrap it up for PSPB.

Meanwhile, PSPB youth girls retained crown after a 3-2 hard-fought win over Airports Authority of India.

But Ankita Das turned the heat on for PSPB, winning both her singles against Nikhat Bhanu and Kritwika Sinha which made the difference in the final analysis.

Ankita beat Nikhat 12-10, 11-4, 14-12 and then downed Kritwika 11-3, 11-7, 12-14, 11-9. Earlier, Suthirtha Mukherjee lost to Kritwika 11-8, 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 8-1, but the former made up with 11-9, 11-7, 12-14, 11-4 victory over Nikhat to seal the title.
Results:

Men: Semifinals: PSPB bt AAI 3-1; RSPB bt FCI 3-1.
Quarterfinals: RSPB bt RBI 3-0; AAI bt LIC 3-0; PSPB bt Indian Audit 3-0; FCI bt Central Revenue 3-2.
Women: Semifinals: PSPB bt Indian Bank 3-0; AAI bt RSPB 3-1.  
Quarterfinals: Indian Bank bt Dena Bank 3-1; RSPB bt Indian Audit 3-2; PSPB bt LIC 3-1; AAI bt Air India 3-2.