Date:23/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/23/stories/2003042306011900.htm

Sport - Bridge

Defender Delhi out

By Bobby Sinha

DEHRADUN APRIL 22 . The quarterfinal round robin league saw the exit of defending champion Delhi. The team returned disappointed with a poor score of 91 VP.

Nine-time champion Maharashtra fielded two teams and both qualified having secured the first two places with 145 and 134 VP respectively. Orissa (118 VP) and Tamil Nadu (112 VP) also entered the semifinals.

Maharashtra `A' represented by Sunil Manohar, Jitu Solani, Ajay Khare, Anand K.S. Samant, R. Sridharan and Anil Tikare won all its seven matches in the quarterfinal league.

It began with a 16-14 win over its `B' team. Thereafter it maintained its winning spree playing against Uttaranchal (25-5), Delhi (23-7), Orissa (16-14), Karnataka `A' (23-7), West Bengal `B' (17-13) and Tamil Nadu (25-5).

Maharashtra `B' represented by Jimmy Mehata, Ratan Kejriwal, Raju Tolani, Vinay Desai, Sunit Choksi and Manish Bahuguna finished second. The team after losing to Maharashtra `A' and West Bengal came into its stride registering its first win in the third session against Orissa 22-8.

Thereafter it collected another 84 VP in four matches played against Tamil Nadu (22-8), Uttaranchal (23-7), Karnataka `A' (22-8) and Delhi (25-2).

Orissa, which gave a vastly improved performance this year, was represented by A. Rout, J. Pratihari, D.N. Lenka, B.M. Behera, B.S. Pradhan and A.K. Baliar Singh.

Tamil Nadu was well served by N. Niranjan, R. Kanan, K. Krishna Kumar, S.K. Chari, S.R.C. Sekar and R. Rajkumar. In its last match against Maharashtra `A' the team suddenly lost form and was defeated 5-25. However it did not affect the prospect of the team.