PSPB men retain title, women regain crown

The formidable Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) men to extend their reign over the Barna Ballack Cup for yet another year, while their women regained the Jayalakshmi Cup in the team finals of the 75th Senior National Table Tennis Championships, here today.
While the men's side trounced West Bengal 3-0, their women counterparts defeated North Bengal with similar scoreline at the Patliputra Sports Complex here today.
The domination of their men's team was never in doubt, thanks to a solid line-up they boast of.
However, there was a lingering feeling about their women's team consistency in spite of the quality they always unveiled. PSPB women had very badly lost to Maharashtra A at Lucknow in 2009 and at Raipur to Delhi last year, to cite a few recent examples.

In fact, there were a few occasions in today's final giving rise to a similar situation, particularly when national champion K. Shamini took on the challenge of North Bengal's Sagarika Mukherjee.
The 16-year-old gave enough scare to spoil Shamini's reputation before the latter could overcome that phase with a fine forehand winner in the decider of the second rubber.

Shamini was somewhat slow to start off and was pushed to the corner by the young North Bengal paddler. The PSPB player brought in variety and put on display an array of brilliant strokes on both the flanks.
Yet, while leading 2-1, Shamini was given a jolt when Sagarika, blocking and serving well, restored parity after the fourth game. In the decider, the lead kept changing hands quickly but Shamini held on to her nerves to romp home.

"I couldn't come to terms with the slowness of the ball initially," admitted Shamini after the match.
What followed was a simple annihilation by Ankita Das who disposed of Sukanya Bose, the weak link in North Bengal's ranks, in straight games of 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 in less than 15 minutes.