New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) Defending champions Team ONGC won the men’s team title after beating team IOCL 3-1 while IOCL, also the defending champions, won the women’s team title with 3-2 win over Team OIL at the 41st PSPB Inter Unit table tennis tournament at the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex, here on Wednesday.
Team ONGC clinched the Veterans team title by beating Team HPCL 3-0 in the tournament, hosted by EIL.
In the men’s team championship, ONGC began strongly when Harmeet Desai played quality table tennis to beat veteran Sharat Kamal from IOCL 3-1.
IOCL then pulled one match back when Manav Thakker beat reigning National champion G Sathiyan 3-0. However, ONGC won the next two matches when 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 were closely contested and saw some exciting games. In a close contest, Archana Kamath from IOCL held her nerve to beat veteran Mouma Das from OIL 3-2. Talented youngster Yashaswani Ghorpade then displayed her tremendous potential when she beat Krittwika Sinha Roy 3-1.
Reeth Rishya then pulled IOCL ahead when she beat Trisha Gogoi 3-1. At this stage, it was critical how the next match between Archana Kamath and Yashaswani Ghorpade would go.
When Archana won the first game 11-3, it seemed like it would be a one sided event, but then Yashaswani, displaying tremendous grit, won the next two games. Archana then won the next game 11-8, but in the deciding final game Yashaswani beat her 12-10 to level the tie between the two teams 2-2.
It was then down to the final game in which Krittwika held her nerve to beat Mouma Das 3-0 to help IOCL retain the women’s team title.
In the Veterans category, ONGC were very strong and beat team HPCL comfortably 3-0.
–IANS
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