The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : It's Thomas vs. Aneesh final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 27, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

It's Thomas vs. Aneesh final

KOCHI: He was a virtual jack-in-the-box a few years ago, a dangerous customer who would suddenly spring and gobble up big seeds in State tournaments.

On Friday, despite unleashing his trademark jump smashes by the dozen, lefthander Joy T. Antony found to his dismay that they lost much of their sting against the top-seeded Thomas Kurian in the men's semifinal of the State badminton championship here.

A cool customer, defending champion Thomas had a ready answer for almost everything Joy served, at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium this evening and he won comfortably.

The final will be an all-Ernakulam affair with Thomas meeting former champion K.A. Aneesh on Saturday evening. Second-seeded Aneesh crushed local lad Antony K. Jacob, giving away just three points in the other semifinal.

The women's play also went on the expected lines with Thrissur's Merit George and Kozhikode's M. Sruthi, the top two seeds, taking their appointed places in the final.

The results: Men's singles semifinals: Thomas Kurian (Ekm) bt Joy T. Antony (Ekm) 15-9, 15-7; K.A. Aneesh (Ekm) bt Antony K. Jacob (Ekm) 15-1, 15-2. Quarterfinals: Thomas Kurian bt P.A. Alfred (Ekm) 15-1, 15-1; Joy Antony bt Ayyappan Krishnan (Tvm) 15-2, 15-4; Antony K. Jacob (Ekm) bt Dileep T. Jacob (Ekm) 15-15-11, 15-1; K.A. Aneesh bt Sandeep Luiz (Ekm) 7-0 (retired hurt). Doubles quarterfinals: Sanave Thomas/Jaison Xavier (Ekm) bt Aneef K. Latheef /P.H. Suraj (Tsr) 15-3, 15-5; George Thomas/K.A. Aneesh (Ekm) bt Arjun Prasad/Jamsheed (Koz) 15-7, 15-12.

Women's singles semifinals: Merit George (Tsr) bt P.C. Thulasi (Tsr) 11-5, 11-8; M. Sruthi (Koz) bt Miral George (Tsr) 8-11, 11-4, 11-5.

Veteran men's singles semifinals: M.F. Johnson (Ekm) bt Abdul Salam (Ksgd) 15-9, 15-2; T. Balan (Knr) bt Sreekumar (Pta) 15-7, 15-4. Doubles final: M.F. Johnson/Mammen Alexander (Ekm) bt Sreekumar/George (Pta) 9-15, 15-3, 15-9.

Masters doubles semifinal: Aloysius/Joseph Augustine (Ekm) bt Ajith/Saijan (Idk) 15-3, 15-5. — Principal Correspondent

Rakesh cracks ton

State under-22 player K.J. Rakesh belted 141 as Kochi Refineries Limited `A' made 352 for eight on the opening day of the three-day K.T.R. Varma Trophy cricket tournament final against EDCA President's XI at the KRL Oval, Ambalamugal, on Friday. The left-hander's knock came off 166 balls and contained two sixes and 16 fours.

The scores: KRL `A', Ambalamugal 352 for eight in 94 overs (K.J.Rakesh 141, R.Sujith 66 n.o., C.Sanju 48, Chandramouli Muthiah four for 64). — Principal Correspondent

Easy for AG's Office

AG's Office and Trivandrum Cricket Club recorded wins in the Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Medical College ground, Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday. AG's Office defeated Attingal CC by 16 runs while TCC overcame Marshalls CC by four wickets.

The scores: AG's Office 153 for eight in 20 overs (Jijesh 68, Sudhir four for 31) bt Attingal CC 137 for five in 20 overs (Suraj 69).

Marshalls CC 118 in 20 overs (Ashok Kumar 51, Dipin three for 23) lost to TCC 119 for six in 19.1 overs (Rahul 45 not out, Vishnu Mahesh 40, Gopikrishna two for 11).

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