PSCB teams move into finals

By Rakesh Rao

JAIPUR, FEB. 1. Shruti Kurien was born six years after Madhumita Bisht won her first National sub-junior title in 1977. In other words, Madhumita's experience is more the Shruti's age. But then, for once, younger one did not complain of the `generation gap' on the opening day of the National badminton championship.

In a one-sided battle lasting just 25 minutes, the 17-year-old Shruti despatched the 37-year-old Madhumita and then again ended on the winning side in the company of Jwala G. against Madhumita and Sampada Shetye to clear Andhra Pradesh's path to the team final against Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB).

Railways, which had staggered past the quarterfinal against West Bengal after Sampada lost to young Barnali Raha in the opening singles, did not have too many chances against AP.

After a fitter and faster Shruti stopped an agile yet aging Madhumita with ease in the opening singles, much depended on the doubles. Madhumita and Sampada looked set to level the match after taking a 14-3 lead in the second game. But Shruti and Jwala staged a remarkable rally to serve for the match at 15-14. The Railway pair once again reached game-point at 16-14 but the AP duo was not to be denied.

PSCB, in the process of completing the formalities of retaining the team titles, expectedly made short work of Delhi women and Air-India men to reach the final. In a repeat clash of last year's men's team title-match, PSCB faces Kerala.

On a day when one-sided results never stopped coming, P. Gopi Chand suffered a now-familiar lapse of concentration during his opening singles match against Air-India's Abhishek Bakshi before gaining control for a 15-9, 15-13 victory in 48 minutes. In the second game, Gopi committed too many unforced errors to trail 3- 10, 12-9 and 13-11 before winning four straight points to close the match.

Bakshi, who trains at the BPL Academy in Bangalore, made the most of Gopi's errors but could not snatch the second game. Gopi, reflecting on the second game thought that Bakshi ``played very well during that spell,'' referring to period when the youngster too a surprisingly big lead. ``I also made a lot of mistakes,'' added Gopi without meaning to take anything away from Bakshi's spirited display.

Soon thereafter, Abhinn Shyam Gupta claimed the singles before Jaseel P. Ismail and Vincent Lobo raced away with the doubles to ensure PSCB's place in the final. In the other semifinal, Kerala had problems only in the doubles against Maharashtra. Thomas Kurien and Sanave Thomas easily won the singles but Jaison Xavier and Roopesh Kumar lost the marathon second game to Rajeev Bagga and Milind Ghate before making it easily in the deciding game.

In the morning, former champion Maharashtra tamed Delhi 3-0 after Vivek Gautam pulled off a dream-rally against Devinder Dhillon in the opening singles.

After claiming the first game at nine, Dhillon looked comfortably placed when serving at 13-8 in the second before Gautam began his memorable fightback. He closed the gap to 11-13 and then reeled off the last four points on the trot to level the match.

In the topsy-turvy decider, Gautam ran up a 13-4 lead but had not reckoned with Dhillon's fighting qualities. Dhillon, varying the length of his returns, repeatedly foxed his rival on the forecourt and gradually snatched a dramatic 14-13 lead to serve for the match.

Gautam saved two match-points to force the match into extra- points. Again, it was Dhillon who forced another match-point at 16-14 but ran out of ideas as Gautam won the last three points to clinch a vital victory.

Delhi, after squandering the second singles rather listlessly, had its moments in the doubles when Praveen Gehlawat and Yoginder Singh snatched the first game from Rajeev Bagga and Milind Ghate. But the Maharashtra pair led right through the second game to restore parity and did not give the rival much hope in the deciding game.

The comforting touch for Delhi came from its women's team which halved Maharashtra's joy by winning 2-0.

The results (team championship):

Men's semifinals: PSCB bt Air India 3-0 (P. Gopi Chand bt Abhishek Bakshi 15-9, 15-13; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt A. Pridhvi 15- 6, 15-3; Jaseel P. Ismail and Vincent Lobo bt Gaurav Singh and Anup Sridhar 15-5, 15-7).

Kerala bt Maharashtra 3-0 (Thomas Kurien bt Rutuparna Kulkarni 15-10, 15-2; Sanave Thomas bt Vivek Guatam 15-5, 15-5; Jaison Xavier and Roopesh Kumar bt Rajeev Bagga and Milind Ghate 15-9, 16-17, 15-4).

Men's quarterfinals: PSCB bt BSB 3-0 (Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt D. Guruprasad 15-1, 15-2; Sidharth Jain bt B. G. Kiran 15-4, 15-1; Markose Bristow and Chetan Anand bt Abhijeet Nampally and G. S. Vinay 15-1, 15-1).

Air-India bt Uttar Pradesh 3-1 (Abhishek Bakshi bt Ravinder Singh 15-13, 15-4; Anup Sridhar lost to Utsav Mishra 14-17, 5-15; A. Pridhvi and Bakshi bt Ajay Mulher and M. Sharma 15-3, 15-4; Pridhvi bt Manish Sharma 15-13, 15-13).

Maharashtra bt Delhi 3-0 (Vivek Gautam bt Devinder Dhillon 9-15, 15-13, 17-16; Rutuparna Kulkarni bt Ashish Chadha 15-1, 15-5; Rajeev Bagga and Milind Ghate bt Praveen Gehlawat and Yoginder Singh 13-15, 15-10, 15-4).

Kerala bt Assam 3-0 (Sanave Thomas bt Bahaniman Bora 15-13, 15- 13; Thomas Kurien bt Pallav Deka 15-8, 15-9; Roopesh Kumar and Jaison Xavier bt Bahaniman Bora and Bhaskar Bora 15-4, 15-6).

Women's semifinals: PSCB bt Delhi 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt Gayatri Mendiratta 11-1, 11-2; Manjusha Kanwar and P.V.V. Lakshmi bt Manju T. George and Krishna Hazarika 15-0, 15-2).

AP bt Railways 2-0 (Shruti Kurien bt Madhumita Bisht 11-5, 11-7; Shruti and G. Jwala bt Madhumita and Sampada Shetye 15-8, 17-16).

Women's quarterfinals: PSCB bt LIC 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt Leena Pednekar 11-3, 11-3; Manujsha Kanwar and P.V.V. Lakshmi bt Leena and Vaishali Shirodkar 15-1, 15-6).

Delhi bt Maharashtra 2-0 (Gayatri Mendiratta bt Krupa Telang 11- 7, 5-11, 11-1; Manju T. George and Krishna Hazarika bt Nupura Shide and Sim Sim Salaria 13-15, 15-9, 15-6).

Railways bt West Bengal 2-1 (Sampada Shetye lost to Barnali Raha 13-11, 5-11, 8-11; Sampada and Madhumita Bisht bt Amrita Bhattacharya and Debashree De 15-5, 15- 3; Tanuja Begam bt Amrita Mukherjee 11-2, 11-8).

AP bt Assam 2-0 (Shruti Kurien lost to Oli Deka 7-11, 11-5, 2-11; Shruti and G. Jwala bt Oli and Bibari Basumatari 15-2, 15-7; Jwala bt Bibari 11-4, 11-3).

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