Defending champions ONGC retained the Men’s Team Title beating IOCL 3-1 while IOCL kept the Women’s team title piping OIL 3-2 in the 41st PSPB Inter Unit Table Tennis Tournament hosted by EIL at the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex here on Wednesday. ONGC also wrapped up the Veterans Team Title beating HPCL 3-0.
ONGC began strongly when Harmeet Desai played quality game to beat veteran Sharat Kamal 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 (IOCL) held her nerve to beat veteran Mouma Das 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