Telangana beat Maharashtra in sub-junior boys TT

Maharashtra and Telangana's fight went down to the wire but the latter came out on top in the second round tie of the 77th Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships being held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

In an upset Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy (PSPBA) boys went down 2-3 to Manipur on Wednesday night. The Manipur boys came back from being 0-2 down to clinch the thriller.

The Telangana players, despite being 1-2 down, rallied back thanks to Mohammad Amaan Rahman who won both his singles to restore parity. However, it was Varun Shankar Balusuri who finished the match by winning his singles against Yash Deshkum 3-2 in a tough decider.

Andhra Pradesh, however, were not lucky as they lost to Kerala 2-3 in a second round encounter.

In sub-junior girls, the match between Assam and Karnataka not only went the full distance but took almost two-and-a-half-hours to get over. The match saw 20 out of a possible 25 games, courtesy of a fine performance by Grisha Gogoi.

But in the end it was Karnataka who emerged 3-2 winners with both Anargya Manjunath and Aditi Nandi sharing the burden equally.

Andhra girls too struggled before overcoming a determined Uttar Pradesh (UP) 3-2 in the first round. Suhana Narjimary put UP ahead but Kajol Ramjali defeated Radhapriya Goel to level the score.

Then the next two rubbers, including doubles, were shared in that order before Mahita Chowdary did her important bit to win the match against Radhapriya 3-1 which eventually decided the fate of UP.

In Cadet Boys category, Mizoram were stretched to five games by Chhattisgarh in their second round group match.

The Cadet Girls second round too witnessed at least four difficult yet interesting matches. Chhattisgarh defeated Mizoram 3-2 in group E, Madhya Pradesh overcame Uttarakhand 3-2 in Group F, Telangana beat a tough UP 3-2 in group G and Maharashtra B surmounted resilient Chandigarh 3-2 in group H.