PSPB preferred the team of Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra and Reeth Rishya, benching veteran Mouma Das and an in-form Mousumi Paul from their line-up against North Bengal.
India (AAI) escaped by the skin of their teeth to live another day while both Maharashtra A and West Bengal cakewalked into the semifinals with 3-0 verdicts against their opponents.
In the semifinals to be played tomorrow, PSPB will take on Maharashtra A while AAI will meet West Bengal.
PSPB preferred the team of Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra and Reeth Rishya, benching veteran Mouma Das and an in-form Mousumi Paul from their line-up against North Bengal.
PSPB almost paid for this hara-kiri when Manika and Reeth lost their second and third singles to Sagarika Mukherjee and Sukanya Bose Manika in straight games and Reeth 1-3.
These wins by North Bengal had unnerved them considerably until Madhurika restored parity, disposing of Sagarika 11-7, 11-6, 11-7. But Manika being susceptible these days, her match against Takeme Sarkar was crucial.
The Rio Olympian struggled yet again as she did in her first game but Takeme failed to bring out her best under the circumstances. Manika, despite leading 2-0, lost her third game in the deciding rubber and just managed to pull it off for PSPB.
AAI was even worse in their plan against MP and choosing Ayhika Mukherjee as their third best player while opting for Frenaz Chipia as second best.
It could have backfired if only Saswati Ghosh had pressed home the advantage provided by teammate Anusha Kutumbale, who won both her singles she first accounted for Frenaz and then Archana, who had provided AAI a 1-0 start.
There was a definite pressure in the AAI camp when Anusha beat Archana to bring MP on par at 2-2 providing an opening.
But an error-prone Saswati failed to utilize the golden opportunity and let Frenaz and AAI off the hook. The AAI girl won 3-0.
Maharashtra, on the other hand, had their quarterfinal match sewn up without a hiccup as Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Charvi Kawle and Shruti Amrute taking care of their interests. Of course, Chavi was stretched by Amrutha Pushpak and this was one match that could have gone either way. In the end Chavi used the opportunities well to convert some astonishing winners.
West Bengal, led by Suthirtha Mukherjee and Railways veteran Anindita Chakraborty, went 2-0 up against Karnatka as Kushi Viswanath and Swetha Kumaravel were taken to cleaners.
But an unexpected resistance came from Spoorthy Venkatesh who led 2-1 only to squander the chance.
Moumita Datta, who was not playing her best and netted quite frequently, scrapped through after Spoorthy had made it 9-all in the decider.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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