Inter-Institutional TT: ONGC retain men's title, IOCL defend women's crown

ONGC and IOCL retained the men's and women's respective titles at the 41st PSPB Inter Unit Table Tennis tournament here on Wednesday.

In the men's team championship, ONGC began strongly when Harmeet Desai beat veteran Sharath Kamal of IOCL 3-1 (11-2, 10-12, 11-7, 11-2).

IOCL then pulled one match back when Manav Thakker beat reigning national champion G Sathiyan 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 12-10).

However, ONGC won the next two matches when A Amalraj beat Priyanuj Bhattacharya 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-6) and Sathiyan was able to find the depth to defeat Kamal 3-1 (11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7).

The women’s team championship was closely contested and saw some exciting games.

In a close contest, Archana Kamath of IOCL held her nerve to beat veteran Mouma Das from OIL 3-2 (11-5, 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 11-6).

Talented youngster Yashaswani Ghorpade then displayed her tremendous potential when she beat Krittwika Sinha Roy 3-1 (12-10, 13-11, 2-11, 12-10). Reeth Rishya then pulled IOCL ahead when she beat Trisha Gogoi 3-1 (11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5).

At this stage, it was critical to 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 tie, but then Yashaswani, displaying tremendous grit, won the next two games 11-7, 11-5.

Archana then won the next game 11-8, but in the deciding final game, Yashaswani beat her 12-10 to level the tie 2-2. It was then down to the final game in which Krittwika held her nerve to beat Mouma Das 3-0 (11-8, 13-11, 11-8) to help IOCL retain the title.