Archana leads AAI to stunning win

 Oly­m­pian Ankita Das of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) suffered twin shock defeats in the women’s singles event of the team championships qualifiers on the opening day of the 45th All India Inter Institutional Table Tennis Championship on Tuesday.

After comfortably winning the opening-round game against Department of Atomic Energy at Thyagaraj Sports complex, PSPB women's team were pushed to the fifth rubber by Indian Audits and Account after Das' game deserted her. In the opening game she went down 8-11, 5-11, 11-3, 11-4, 7-11 to Swetha Kumaravel. Mouma Das and Pooja Sahasrabuddhe won the next two encounters but Das again went down to Pooja Sharma in four sets (11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-13) to leave the contest tantalisingly poised in the fifth tie. Mouma Das, though, held her nerves and won the match in four sets to get the PSPB players out of the woods.

However, it was the Airport Authority of India team comprising promising players -- Archana Kamath, Akula Sreeja and Rony Maria -- who created the biggest flutter on the day when they outwitted favourites PSPB 3-2 in the youth girls’ section.

Fourteen-year-old cadet girl Archana emerged the star when she first beat the experienced Manika Batra 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 in the second singles and then accounted for the equally-skilled Reeth Rishya 11-3, 11-4, 5-11, 6-11, 11-9 .

Earlier, Sreeja had put AAI ahead when she beat Reeth Rishya 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4 in the first singles. Down 0-2, PSPB was kept it contention by Senhora D’Souza who beat Maria Rony 11-6, 11-7, 11-6 and Manika who downed Sreeja 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 in their reverse singles to make it 2-2.

Results: Men: Group A: PSPB bt Ministry of Communication & IT 3-0, PSPB bt BSNL 3-0. Group B: RSPB bt DAE 3-0

Group C: AAI bt OFSPB 3-0; AAI bt OFSPB 3-0; Group D: CRSP bt DASCB 3-0, CRSB bt Canara Bank 3-0; Group E: Air India bt RBI 3-1, ESIC bt AIESCB 3-0; Group F: LIC bt SBP 3-0, IA&AD bt AFSCB 3-0, SBP bt AFSCB 3-0.

Women: Group A: PSPB bt DAE 3-0, PSPB bt IA&AD 3-0; Group B: AAI bt LIC 3-0, AAI w.o ESIC 3-0, FCI bt LIC 3-0, LIC w.o ESIC 3-0, FCI w.o ESIC 3-0. Group C: RSPC bt CRSB 3-0, RSPB bt BSNL 3-0, CRSB bt Defence Accounts 3-1. Group D: Air India lt to RBI 1-3; RBI bt Ministry of Communications 3-0; Air India bt Dena Bank 3-2.

Youth Boys: PSPB bt RSPB 3-0; AAI lt to Dena Bank 2-3; PSPB lt to Dena Bank 2-3.
Youth Girls: PSPB lt to AAI 2-3, Air India bt Dena Bank 3-0.