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Maharashtra boys bag double

By Our Special Correspondent

The Maharashtra boys who won the under-15 and under-19 team titles in the National junior squash championship in Chennai on Tuesday. (From left): Tanmay Govil, Vikas Jangra, Naishadh Lalwani, Vikram Malhotra, Ritesh Sharma, Sandeep Jangra and Anurag Gill.

CHENNAI OCT. 14. Tuesday was Maharashtra's day in the National junior inter-State squash championship. The State won the under-19 and under-15 boys' team titles. With that the inaugural inter-State phase of the National championship ended and the individual events got underway at the TNSRA-SDAT courts.

The under-15 title was to be Maharashtra's anyway as the contestants were the State's main and `B' teams. For the record the main team won and there was hardly a ripple around the glass-walled court. But for the other title the opponent was the host's main team, spearheaded by that irrepressible bundle of energy, Saurav Ghosal.

That Ghosal is a class above the rest is well known and his winning one match was certain. But that alone was not enough for Tamil Nadu. It needed another matching show and the onus was on A. Parthiban tackling the higher rated Sandeep Jangra. As it happened, Tamil Nadu's hopes lay shattered.

If Parthiban has the benefit of being trained at the ICL academy, then Sandeep also could claim some advantage, having spent time here. On court, it was a question of consistency and the ability to wriggle out of tight situations. That both are fighters became clear from the penchant the two showed for long rallies.

But after a point Parthiban's strokes lost their punch and his confidence sagged. For 67 minutes the two kept the supporters glued to the action. But the under-17 top seed in the open event, Sandeep's ascendancy was never in question even though Parthiban pulled one game back.

The opening match result saw Maharashtra tighten its grip on the title. It did not matter that Ghosal was at his dazzling best in beating Vikas Jangra in straight games and restoring parity in the match scores. For, in the decider Vinayak Shetty's best was not good enough to upset a higher rated Anurag Gill, who in fact played with a nagging headache.

Ghosal must have shouted the loudest to inspire Vinayak but the youngster exhibited little variation or deception to appear capable of troubling his opponent, let alone outwitting him. Considering the initial suspense, the enthusiastic fight and the dazzle by Ghosal, it was a tame finish in the end.

The open events began concurrently and over 140 first round matches were being held in the under-19, 17, 15, 13 and 11 categories in both boys' and girls' sections.

Later in the evening, the open events were formally inaugurated by Maj General Paramjit Singh, General Officer Commanding, ATNK area. Mr. N. Ramachandran, President, TNSRA welcomed the gathering. The chief guest also launched the redesigned website www.indiansquash.com

The results:

Boys (final): Under-19: Maharashtra beat Tamil Nadu 2-1 (Sandeep Jangra bt A. Parthiban 9-0, 9-6, 4-9, 9-3; Vikas Jangra lost to Saurav Ghosal 3-9, 1-9, 3-9; Anurag Gill bt Vinayak Shetty 9-2, 9-5, 9-1).

Under-15: Maharashtra beat Maharashtra `B' 3-0 (Vikram Malhotra bt Laxman Joshi 9-3, 9-0, 9-0; Naishadh Lalwani bt Anup Sharma 9-7, 9-3, 9-0; Tanmay Govil bt Nitin Chauhan 9-10, 9-5, 9-2, 9-0).

Third place: under-19: Maharashtra `B' lost to New Delhi 1-2 (Dhiraj Nagpal lost to Dhruv Dhawan 4-9, 4-9, 1-9; Rushabh Vora lost to Karan Singh 10-9, 3-9, 9-10, 9-4, 3-9; Manek Mathur bt Arjun Sachdev 9-3, 9-0, 9-0); under-15: Rajasthan beat Tamil Nadu 2-1 (Parth Sharma lost to Harinderpal Singh 3-9, 5-9, 3-9; Pratik Baweja bt Arnish Uberoi 9-6, 3-9, 9-0, 9-4; Ishaan Balwani bt Girish Sawlani 9-4, 9-5, 10-9).

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