HSB / New Delhi
India overpowered Chinese Taipei 3-1 to win the title and the gold in the Cadet girls category at the ITTF Junior Circuit Premium Oman Junior and Cadet Open table tennis at Muscat today.
However Junior Girls team event, both the Indian teams finished No. 2 and No. 3 in group standings to win the silver and bronze medals. But in Junior Boys, one of the two Indian teams won bronze when it went down 1-3 to Iran in the semi-finals.
In the final team comprising, Kavyashree Baskar of Tamil Nadu and Nilisma Sarkar of West Bengal, had to battle it out for the victory.. Kavyashree beat Cheng Pu- Syuan 8-11, 1-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 but Nilisma lost 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 11-13, 4-11 to Liang yuan-Ting in the second rubber.
But the Indian duo beat them in straight sets of 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 in the doubles to gain the upper hand before Kavyashree sealed their fate in the reverse singles against Liang winning it 11-2, 11-7, 5-11, 11-7 for the top-of-podium finish.
The second Indian team, also earned a bronze, after losing 2-3 to the ‘A’ team in the semi-final. The members of the bronze medal team included Suhana Saini of Haryana and Taneesha Kotecha of Maharashtra.
In the Cadet Boys section, Indian teams had to be content with two bronze medals after they failed to go past the semi-final hurdle, as the A and B teams lost to Taipei and Russia, respectively, by an identical margin of 0-3.
Taipei, however, avenged their gold loss by pushing the A team of India in Junior Girls to the second spot as the Indian girls, consisting of Anargya Manjunath and Swastika Ghosh, failed to repeat what the Cadet Girls did in a tough match against Taipei.
The Indians were caught on the wrong foot when Anargaya lost their opening singles. Cai Fong-En beat the Karnataka girl 6-11, 13-11, 11-1, 9-11, 11-6 but the Maharashtra girl defeated Hsu Yi-Chen 14-12, 11-8, 11-7 to level the score and then, combing win Anargaya, accounted for the Taipei pair 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9 to put India 2-1 up through the doubles triumph.
But in the reverse singles, the Taipei girls proved very tough as Swastika lost to Cai 11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 8-11 and Anargaya to Hsu 8-11, 9-11, 3-11.
In their other group matches, India A had beaten India B (3-1), Greece-England combine (3-1) and Sri Lanka 3-0.
The B team, comprising Anusha Kutumbale and Munmun Kundu, lost their matches to India A and Chinese Taipei but registered wins over Greece-England and Sri Lanka to end up with the bronze medal.