Date:30/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/30/stories/2008123055801600.htm

Sport - Squash

University of Mumbai crowned champion

Sports Reporter

Chennai: University of Mumbai defeated University of Delhi 3-2 in the final of the all-India inter-university squash men’s team championship here on Monday, avenging its defeat in last year’s final at Mumbai against the same opponent.

The clash ended with a bitter, but enthralling match between Mumbai’s Kunwarpal Singh and Delhi’s Varun Prakash, both of whom literally didn’t concede an inch, arguing constantly with the referee over obstruction calls.

The final game of the match was a tad anticlimactic, considering how neck-and-neck the first four had been. Varun’s tendency to find the tin in tackling balls above his waist and to go over the side out-lines in playing his lobs, which had shown itself intermittently till then, cost him heavily.

Kunwarpal held his nerve to take the game 11-3, and burst into a warlike yell, while Varun destroyed his racquet, flinging it against the side wall.

Delhi had lost the first two matches quite easily, with Raghav Behl and Prateek Chalia beaten by Laxman Joshi and Cyrus Vakil.

But Delhi had come back from a similar situation in winning its semifinal against Anna and demonstrated its bounciness again.

Gunraj Singh began the revival with a 3-1 win over Nitin Chauhan, and Uday Das prevailed over Arun Sharma.

The results: Team Championship: Final: University of Mumbai bt University of Delhi 3-2 (Laxman Joshi bt Raghav Behl 11-6, 11-2, 11-5; Cyrus Vakil bt Prateek Chalia 11-8, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6; Nitin Chauhan lost to Gunraj Singh 11-8, 6-11, 4-11, 2-11; Arun Sharma lost to Uday Das 12-14, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11; Kunwarpal Singh bt Varun Prakash 12-10, 11-13, 12-10, 8-11, 11-3).

Third Place play-off: Anna University bt University of Pune 3-1 (Vinayak lost to Abhimanyu 7-11, 7-11, 14-16; Prashanth bt Nikhil Jain 11-6, 13-11, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8; Kalimuthu bt Mann Karan Veer Singh 11-2, 11-7, 11-2; Suneesh bt Tanmay 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9).

Semifinals: Mumbai bt Pune 3-0 (Laxman Joshi bt Abhimanyu 11-3, 11-2, 11-1; Cyrus Vakil bt Nikhil Jain 11-5, 11-6, 11-5; Nitin Chauhan bt Mann Karan Veer Singh 11-1, 11-2, 11-4); Delhi bt Anna University 3-2 (Raghav Behl lost to Vinayak 11-8, 8-11, 6-11, 4-11; Prateek Chalia lost to Prashanth 5-11, 5-11, 6-11; Gunraj Singh bt Kalimuthu 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-3; Uday Das bt Suneesh 11-5, 11-3, 11-6; Varun Prakash bt Vignesh 11-4, 11-1, 11-2).

Individual Championship: Final: Laxman Joshi w/o Cyrus Vakil.

Third Place play-off: Abhimanyu Pandey bt Raghav Behl 11-3, 11-7, 4-11, 11-6. Semifinals: Laxman Joshi bt Abhimanyu Pandey 11-6, 11-7, 11-5; Cyrus Vakil bt Raghav Behl 11-7, 11-7, 12-10.