The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSBP) men's team made a bold statement and almost ensured their berth in the pre-quarterfinals of the 80th edition of the 11Even Sports Senior National Table Tennis Championships which began at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
It was child's play for PSPB, who thrashed both Maharashtra B and Bihar with identical 3-0 scores in the first two rounds of Group A.
So confident were PSPB that they had rested A. Sharath Kamal. G. Sathiyan led the charge along with Anthony Amalraj and Manav Thakkar. However, Sharath is expected to enter the fray in their last group match against Sikkim as he was seen warming up.
In their first round they thrashed Bihar as Sathiyan won 11-7, 11-4, 11-4 against Yogesh Mathuri to set the ball rolling. Amalraj followed it up with a 11-9, 11-6, 11-4 victory to PSPB 2-0, leaving Manav Thakkar to complete the job. He won 11-3, 11-3, 11-6 against Lekh Raj.
Then they accounted for Maharashtra B, with Sathiyan starting the proceedings against Js Dalvi (11-4, 11-7, 11-9) and Sudhanshu Grover completing it against Tanmay Rane (11-9, 11-9, 11-6). In between Amalraj took a game more to beat Faegan Albuquerque 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10.
Manika Batra led PSPB's charge in the women's section as they beat Uttarakhand 3-0. Her victim was Vanshika Yadav who lost 7-11, 6-11, 4-11, while Madhurika Patkar beat Priyana Saha 11-3, 11-8, 11-5 with Archana Kamath downing Jyoti Bharti 11-2, 11-4, 11-3 in the one-sided first round.
--IANS
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