Good start for PSCB

Good start for PSCB
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Cuttack, January 5: Reigning champions Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB) began their campaign by trouncing Sikkim 3-0 in the men’s category in the 62nd Senior National and Inter-state Table Tennis championship which began at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Friday.

Inspite of the one-year ban handed out to its top player Arup Basak, PSCB had little trouble coasting past the minnows in group-A with S Raman trouncing N Bhotia of Sikkim 21-11, 21-10.

Subhajit Saha routed Rupesh Lama 21-6, 21-6 in the second tie while Arjun Dutta blasted V Prasad 21-4, 21-8.

In a group-C match, Bengal beat Goa 3-0 while Karnataka defeated Haryana by the same margin in the same group.

Most of the preliminary round-robin matches played this evening were one-sided affairs though the group-A tie between hosts Orissa and Pondicherry went the full distance with the former prevailing 3-2.

In the women’s section, Karnataka beat Pondicherry 3-0 while Tamil Nadu trounced Haryana 3-0. New entrants Uttaranchal causeda flutter when they downed Maharashtra-A 3-1 in a group-B encounter.

Results: Group-A: Bihar bt Kerala 3-0, Tamilnadu bt Uttaranchal3-0, PSCB bt Sikkim 3-0, Orissa bt Pondicherry 3-2; Group-B: Gujarat bt Andhra Pradesh 3-1, Assam bt J&K 3-0,Maharashtra-B bt Jharkhand 3-0; Group-C: Maharashtra-A bt Chandigarh 3-0, Karnataka btHaryana 3-0, Bengal bt Goa 3-0; Group-D: Madhya Pradesh bt Himachal Pradesh 3-0,Rajasthan bt Chhatisgarh 3-0, Delhi bt Tripura 3-0; Team championship (women): Group-A: Rajasthan bt Jharkhand 3-1, Gujarat bt UttarPradesh 3-0; Group-B: Kerala bt Himachal Pradesh 3-0, Uttaranchal btMaharashtra-a 3-1, Karnataka bt Pondicherry 3-0; Group-C: Assam bt Chhatisgarh 3-0; Group-D: Madhya Pradesh bt Chandigarh 3-0, Tamilnadu btHaryana 3-0.