Raegan, Tejal guide Blazing Bashers to comfortable win

Rising Indian paddlers Raegan Albuquerque and Tejal Kamble performed a star turn for defending champions Blazing Bashers as they registered a thumping victory over Phantom Stars to begin their Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Mumbai Super League campaign in style at the NSCI here on Thursday.

Reagan and Tejal won four encounters and eight games between them to help Bashers clinch a comfortable 16-11 win.

Gurcharan Gill started the proceedings for Bashers beating Naveen Salian 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7) to give his side a perfect start. Raegan widened the gap further in his team's favour with a 2-1 (11-1, 8-11, 11-10) victory over Ravindra Kotiyan.

However, Shruti Amruthe could not maintain the momentum and went down to Mamta Prabhu 0-3 (7-11, 7-11, 4-11) which helped Phantoms narrow the gap to just one point. It was Tejal who combined with Aadil Anand to win their mixed doubles encounter against Hrishikesh Malhotra & Ananya Chande 2-1 (6-11, 11-10, 11-10).

Merwyn Patel went down to Tavanth Nerlaje 1-2 (11-10, 5-11, 7-11) in the next cadet boy's match but it was Raegan who rose to the occasion once again and paired with Shruti Amrute to beat Ravindra Kotiyan & Mamata Prabhu 2-1 (10-11, 11-9, 11-9) to put his team back into the driver's seat.

Tejal won the junior women's singles rubber 2-1 (11-10, 11-10, 8-11) over Ananya Chande to widen the gap further in her team's favour. Gurcharan Singh Gill & Merwyn Patel beat Naveen Salian & Tavanth Nerlaje while Aadil Anand also registered an identical win over Hrishikesh Malhotra to complete the drubbing.

In the other encounters of the day, last season's runner-up Ace recorded a 14-13 victory over Kool Smashers in their opening encounter, while Century Warriors beat West Coast Rangers 14-13 to open their account.

--IANS

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