ONGC, BPCL win PSPB badminton team titles

Oil major ONGC won the men's team championships while BPCL bagged the women's and veterans team championships in the 35th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) Inter Unit Badminton Tournament at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Tuesday.

In the men's team championship final, ONGC beat IOCL 3-0.

Former national champion Saurabh Verma (ONGC) was in sublime form, prevailing over World No.14 Parupalli Kashyap (IOCL). Verma won the first game comfortably 21-13. The second was closely contested and witnessed good rallies before Saurabh won it 22-20.

In the other singles match, H.S. Prannoy (ONGC) came up against stiff resistance from K. Srikanth (IOCL) in a gripping three-game match where Prannoy overcame Srikanth 21-16, 11-21, 21-19. While in doubles, K.T. Rupesh Kumar and V. Diju (ONGC) beat Arun Vishnu and Srikanth (IOCL) 21-16, 22-20.

It was a good day for BPCL too, who won both the women's and veterans team championships. In women's final, BPCL prevailed over IOCL 2-1 with some close matches.

Playing the first singles, P.V. Sindhu (BPCL) lost the first game to a spirited Tanvi Lad (IOCL) 19-21. However, Sindhu soon got the measure of Tanvi and worked the court well to win the next two games 21-6 and 21-9 to clinch the match.

In doubles, Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant (IOCL) played an attacking game to beat marquee pairing of Jwala Gutta and Sindhu (BPCL) 21-14, 26-24.

This necessitated playing the deciding second singles match where former national champion Aditi Mutatkar (BPCL) was dominant in her win over Trupti Murgunde (IOCL) with the score reading 21-16, 21-11.

In the veterans' final, BPCL beat GAIL 2-0. In the first singles, George Thomas (BPCL) beat Ajay Jindal (GAIL) 21-14, 21-13 while in doubles Milind Ghate and Bhushan Akut (BPCL) defeated Ajay Jindal and K.S. Kumaresan (GAIL) quite comfortably 21-11, 21-7.

Men's and women's singles and women's doubles were played in the afternoon session where P.C. Thulasi beat Aditi Mutatkar 21-16, 18-21, 21-13.