PSPB claim team titles in TT tiols

Hyderabad, Jan 7 : Petrol Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) continued their domition in the 77th Senior tiol and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships and claimed the men’s and women’s team titles at the Kotla Vijay Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

PSPB’s men yet again lifted the Bar Ballack Cup, for the 18th time, beating Harya 3-1, while PSPB women did an encore beating West Bengal 3-0 to retain the Jayalakshmi Cup for the 14th time overall and the second consecutive occasion after letting it slip off their hands for a year to Delhi at Raipur in 2012. PSPB women had won their first crown at Lucknow in 1999. Only once did their men lose hold on the trophy when they went down to the Railways way back in 2001 at New Delhi.

Harya paddler Jubin Kumar was impressive during both in the semi-fil and the fil but his teamates, who beat Maharashtra 3-0 in the last four contest, failed to repeat their show in the title showdown.

After knocking off Soumyajit Ghosh in the opening rubber, Jubin provided a perfect start. But veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, returning to the grandstand event, played true to his potential and class to account for Sarthak Gandhi. Sharath’s crisp shots, off both hands, had mesmerizing effect on young Sarthak and he threw in the towel early.

Then Harmeet Desai — both Amalraj and Sathiyan were benched for the fil — huffed and puffed his way to beating Mohit Verma to put PSPB 2-1 up. Then Sharath, despite being extended by Jubin in their reverse singles, did not get carried away and finished the job in style. IANS