It was double delight for the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) as they retained both the men's and women's singles titles at the 76th senior national table tennis championships here Wednesday.
While PSPB men blanked West Bengal 3-0 to lift the Barna Ballack Cup, their women comrades annexed the Jayalakshmi Cup by defeating the same rivals with a similar scoreline at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
In the men's final, Soumyajit Ghosh was in some sort of a discomfort against a fighting Sougata Sarkar of Bengal, but the latter could only stretch him in every game in the first rubber.
After a sluggish start, G. Sathiyan positioned himself well to account for Sourav Saha and give PSPB a 2-0 lead.
Then Harmeet Desai put it beyond the reach of West Bengal by galloping to an easy win over the young Surajit Sarkar.
Too much reliance on Mousumi Paul was the bane of West Bengal as PSPB's women team -- Ankita Das, K. Shamini and Manika Batra -- just went about its task very clinically in the final.
Except for Batra, who conceded a game to her opponent Pallabi Kundu, both Das and Shamini played as if they were playing against novices.
Results (team events):
Men: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sougata Sarkar 13-11, 12-10, 14-12, G. Sathiyan bt Sourav Saha 9-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-7, Harmeet Desaia bt Surajit Das 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7); Semifinals: PSPB bt Gujarat 3-1 (Sanil Shetty bt Hardik Bhatt 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, Soumyajit Ghosh lost to Devesh Karia 8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 8-11, G. Sathiyan bt Jignesh Jaiswal 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, Sanil Shetty bt Devesh Karia 2-11, 13-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7), West Bengal bt Haryana 3-0 (Sougata Sarkar bt Sourav Chakraborty 11-5, 11-7, 11-7, Sourav Saha bt Jubin Kumar 11-9, 11-8, 12-10, Surajit Das bt Sarthak Gandhi 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10).
Women: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Mousumi Paul 11-7, 11-6, 11-6, K. Shamini bt Anandita Chakraborty 11-6, 11-5, 15-13, Manika Batra bt Pallabi Kundu 4-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5); Semifinals: PSPB bt Maharashtra 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Madhurika Patkar 9-11, 11-3, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5, Mouma Das bt Pooja Sahasrabudhe 13-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-5, Manika Batra bt Divya Deshpande 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6), West Bengal bt Airports Authority of India 3-1 (Anandita Chakraborty bt Nikhat Banu 11-4, 11-6, 1-11, 12-10, Mousumi Paul bt Amrutha Pushpak 11-6, 6-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6, Shreya Ghosh lost to Sereha Jacob 10-12, 7-11, 12-10, 7-11, Mous8mi Paul bt Nikhat Banu 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 2-11, 11-9).
