Indeed, the minnows had to dig out from their reservoir of skills in order to give a few anxious moments to their better rivals, but nothing beyond that happened. In the Cadet boys section, four teams managed to take a game each off their rivals with West Bengal in Group A losing a game to Bihar for a 3-1 verdict, Maharashtra beating Chandigarh 3-1, Karnataka downing Punjab 3-1 and Uttar Pradesh accounting for Uttrakhand 3-1. For the rest of the teams, it was a smooth sailing as they all blanked out their opponents 3-0 to register wins. Going by their form, they should easily make it to the second stage, barring hiccups in their next matches.
There were some surprises for the Cadet girls of Mahrashtra B. Their never-say-die attitude, however, helped them stop Jharkhand, who went down 2-3 after putting up a keen fight. Ritika Kundu put Jharkand ahead when she beat Toral Manderekar 2-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6, but West Bengal’s Disha Hulawale restored parity with a 11-0, 11-0, 11-1 win over Awantika Rai.
In the doubles, Kadambari Bhandarkar and Shreya Deshpande combined together to take Maharshtra B 2-1 when the pair beat Rikita Kundu and chandini Kumari 5-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6. However, Ritika infuesed new life into Jharkhand ranks with a 11-7, 11-5, 12-10 hard-fought win over Disha Hulawale. Precariously placed as they were at this stage, it was left to Toral to bring Mahrashtra back in the match. She promptly despatched Awantika in straight games of 11-5, 11-1, 11-6.
Only three other teams conceded a game each to their opponents—
Kerala’s Excise and Customs Minister K. Babu delared the meet open in the afternoon and the formal inauguration was followed by a colourful cultural programme and panchari melam (a traditional percussion performance).
A TTFI Press Release
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