HYDERABAD, February 4: Indian Railways today underscored that they have the best badminton teams in the country when their men and women bagged the Rahimtoola Cup and the Chadha Cup, respectively, without much difficulty at the Lal Bahadur Stadium here.In the finals, Railway women beat hosts Andhra Pradesh 2-1 while their men unseated Maharashtra from the throne with a 3-1 verdict in the Bristol Inter-state badminton championships.
Maharashtra, who were favoured to retain their title here, suddenly appeared vulnerable after Tuesday's semi-final against Delhi. While stretching them full distance, Delhi exposed that Maharashtra does not have enough depth in their singles, which are crucial in a team event, but are good in doubles. Railways, on the other hand, proved that their strong point is singles and doubles is their weak link. This was precisely what swung the final in Railways favour. They won all their three singles matches and their only loss came in doubles.
Results
Team championshipfinals: Women: Indian Railways bt Andhra Pradesh 2-1 Pooja Parekh bt P V V Lakshmi 11-3, 8-11, 11-7; Madhumita Bist/Sindhu Gulati lost to P V V Lakshmi/P V Sarada Devi 11-15, 15-17; BR Meenakshi bt Radhika 11-0, 11-2.
Men: Railways bt Maharashtra 3-1 Vincent Lobo bt Amrish Shinde 9-15, 15-7, 15-9; Srikanth Bakshi bt Vijay Lancy 18-15, 10-15, 15-11; Vinod Kumar/Roy Mathew lost to Rajeev Bagga/Bhushan Akut 5-15, 10-15; Sashin Ratti bt Vikrant Patwardhan 15-1, 15-5.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
