The Hindu : IOCL storms into finals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Badminton

IOCL storms into finals

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE June 17. The star-studded Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. stormed into both the men's and women's team event finals of the 24th Petroleum Sports Control Board's inter-unit badminton championship at the Raheja-KBA Stadium here on Monday.

In a replay of the last year's final, the champion IOCL will clash with the last year's runner-up Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), while on the distaff side, IOCL meets the BPCL.

IOCL dumped BPCL 3-0. Once the Indian ace, P. Gopi Chand brushed aside George Thomas swiftly at 7-1, 7-2, 7-0 and Abhinn Shyam Gupta romped past Vijay Lancy 7-0, 7-1, 7-2, the issue became a formality and doubles team of Markose Bristow and Jaseel P.ismail quickly sealed IOCL's win.

The other semifinal tie also ran on predictable lines. Southpaw Chetan Anand pitched in, winning his singles and then partnered Thomas Kurian to take doubles as well to power ONGC past OIL 3-0.

The women's league contests saw IOCL, spearheaded by Aparna Popat and B.R. Meenakshi, notch up two wins and so did its archrival, BPCL with Jwala Gutta in the thick of action. The clash between the two outfits on Tuesday, should be an interesting one.

Earlier in the morning session, BPCL rallied to down GAIL 3-1 and it was Arvind Bhat, making his debut for GAIL, who gave a flying start with a splendid rally against Ajit Wijetilak. In the no holds barred contest, Arvind edged out Ajit 7-4, 7-5, 1-7, 3-7, 8-7.

National semifinalist Ravindra Singh was expected to consolidate Bhat's gain, but he fell flat against a methodical Lancy in straight games 2-7, 5-7, 5-7. Later Lancy and Wijetilak won the doubles and veteran George Thomas wrapped up the third singles against Amit Singh easily to send BPCL to last four round. In the other men's quarterfinal, OIL easily defeated HPCL 3-0.

The results:

Men's team event (semifinals): ONGC bt OIL 3-0 (Chetan Anand bt Amitab Goswami 7-5, 3-7,7-0, 7-1; Siddarth Jain bt Pallav K. Deka 7-2, 5-7, 7-2, 7-0; Chetan Anand & Thomas Kurian bt Ajay Kanwar & Praveen G. 7-0, 7-2, 7-1).

IOCL bt BPCL 3-0 (P. Gopi Chand bt George Thomas 7-1, 7-2, 7-0; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Vijay Lancy 7-0, 7-1, 7-2; Markose Bristow & Jaseel P. Ismail bt Ajit Wijetilak & Bhushan Akut 7-5, 7-2, 7-0).

Quarterfinals: BPCL bt GAIL 3-1 (Ajit Wijetilak lost to Arvind Bhat 4-7, 5-7, 7-1, 7-3, 7-8; Vijay Lancy bt Ravindra Singh 7-2, 7-5, 7-5; Ajit Wijetilak & Vijay Lancy bt R.N. Mittal & A. Jindal 7-2, 7-0, 7-0; George Thomas bt Amit Singh 7-0, 7-0, 7-3).

OIL bt HPCL 3-0 (Pallav K. Deka bt B. Gurung 7-1, 7-2, 7-2; Amitab Goswami bt N.K. Hulsuri 7-0, 7-1, 7-0; Ajay Kanwar & Praveen bt B. Gurung & R.V. Deshmkh 7-1, 7-2, 7-2).

Women's team event (league): BPCL bt OIL 2-0 (Neelima Choudhry bt C.H. Deepthi 7-5, 7-5, 7-4; G. Jwala & Shruti Kurian bt C.H. Deepti & Oli Deka 7-2, 7-5, 7-4).

IOCL bt GAIL 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt Rashmi Das 7-0, 7-1, 7-2; B.R. Meenakshi & Manjusha Kanwar bt Rashmi Das & Ruchita Das 7-1, 7-0, 7-1).

BPCL bt GAIL 2-0 (G. Jwala bt Ruchitha Chadha 7-1, 7-0, 7-1; P.V.V. Lakshmi & Archana Deodhar bt Rashmi Das & Ruchita Chadha 7-0,7-0,7-1).

IOCL bt OIL 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt C.H. Deepthi 7-0, 7-4, 8-6; B.R. Meenakshi & Manjusha Kanwar bt C.H. Deepthi & Oil Deka 7-0,7-1,7-2).

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