Nikhil tears Kunal to shreds

Photo: Anand Chaini

Kunal Bhide in action

Suhrid Barua & B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE: It was a battle between two unseeded players, but it had enough to keep the spectators' interest alive. Nikhil Bhandari was in a tearing hurry. If not anything, he gave out an impression that he had some important stuff to do than to wield the racquet as he took Kunal Bhate to the cleaners with an emphatic 21-4, 21-6 victory in the mens' singles first round match of the 63rd Pune district badminton championships, organised by Pune District and Metropolitan Badmiton Association (PDMBA) at the WIE sports complex here on Sunday.

The nimble-footed Nikhil played with purpose and knew what exactly he had to do to get the better of Kunal Bhate. Precise with his tosses and drop shots, he foiled all designs of Kunal to run him around on both sides of the court. Nikhil was quick to realise that Kunal was finding it difficult to cope with the well-camouflaged drops as his bulky frame was hampering his movements. Many a times, Kunal was literally toyed around by the leaner Nikhil, who fully capitalised on Kunal's feet of clay at the net.

What was so good about Nikhil's game was that he was never predictable. If at one time he was teasing and tormenting his opponent with frustration-creeping drops, while at other times he engaged him in long rallies, which was never comforting for Kunal.

To add to his woes, Kunal was also guilty of faulty service returns on quite a few occasions. Nikhil just run away with the opening game at 21-4 before maintaining a tight noose over Kunal racing out to a 3-0 lead in the second game. By then, Kunal was fighting a lost battle and was merely going through the motions. His agony came to an end when Nikhil closed out the match at 21-6 in a duel lasting just 12 minutes.

Top seeds have it easy

This match apart, almost all top seeded players of almost all categories sailed into the fourth round of the tournament beating their opponents easily here today.
In just over 15 minutes in third round of the U-13 Boys’ Singles event, top seed Sudhanshu Mediskar showed Punekars he was on top form and ready to take on stiff challenges as the tournament unfolds.
For Medsikar, this tournament is a testing ground for him, as he had the greatest of challenges ahead of him to succeed and drive home a point that his career in badminton is not going anywhere, but up. This he did in grand style by thumping his rival Ranade Jay 21-11, 21-5.

Considering the reputation of Jay, Medsikar did not have any difficulty in marching past his opponent. “I knew I was playing an unseeded player. But I did not take the game lightly. I employed a waiting game so as to study Jay. It worked. I knew the weak and strong points of Jay and it was easy for me to capitalise after this realisation,” Medsikar told Maharashtra Herald here on Sunday after the match.

In third round of U-16 Girls’ Singles event, top seed Sanyogita Ghorpade defeated Radhika Joshi 21-14, 21-9 in straight games. Displaying her killer-instinct spirit, top seed Aishwarya Dobhada registered a comfortable victory over Shinani Chordia 21-0, 21-5 in U13 Girls’ Singles event.

RESULTS: Mens’ Singles: I Round: Nikhil Bhandari bt Kunal Bhate 21-4, 21-6; U-13 Girls’ Singles: III Round: Aishwarya Dobhada bt Shinani Chordia 21-0, 21-5; U-16 Girls’ Singles: Sanyogita Ghorpade bt Radhika Joshi 21-14, 21-9; U-13 Boys’ Singles: Sudhanshu Mediskar bt Ranade Jay 21-11, 21-5.

WNS Juggernaut rolls on, enter semis

Photo: Anand Chaini

A WNS player battling for possession

B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE: Savage, beastly or devilish. These words have all the potential to exact wrath from puritans. But there are some who die to watch devilish excitement on a field on any given day. The lucky few, who had gathered to watch the quarterfinal games of Second Inter-Corporate Football Mania 2007 here on Sunday, went home delighted taking back with them fond memories of these matches.

WNS N-Trance, in an unforgiving mood, mauled Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) by six stunning goals to storm into the semifinals. Other three teams that sailed into the last four round are Ventura, IBM and Wipro. While Ventura will play IBM in the first semifinals and Wipro against WNS N-Trance on Saturday next.

Sticking to their reputation of being capable of causing a major upset in the tournament, WNS came out all blazing in the big match. They oozed loads of confidence as soon as they took to the field. “We were determined to win. For things to happen, we first consolidated our position by playing safe for the first ten minutes and then going for the kill,” Allen Almeida told Maharashtra Herald after the match.

The player that made all the difference in the one-sided encounter was Baptist Lobo, who scored an hat-trick, all goals coming in second half of the game. Doni Mehta also joined the party after curving in the goal twice in the first dig.

Doni Mehta began the campaign for WNS when he curved in the ball past TCS goalkeeper 10 minutes into the game. He once again put his team in the lead 3-0 eight minutes after firing the first. Not far behind was Allen Almeida who joined the celebration by scoring the second goal in 15th minute.

Any side going into the interregnum with three goals behind them would make them feel proud. Such a feeling sometimes can make best of the teams complacent. This did not happen to WNS who began their ‘Mission Rout’ with added vengeance in the second half.

This half belonged to Baptist Lobo scoring a hat trick. He netted the ball thrice in 35th, 45th and 50th minutes of the game.

Meanwhile, Ventura trounced WNS 4-2 in penalty shootouts. Both teams were tied at 1-1 after the final whistle. In all their three attempts, Ventura players – Himanshu, Savio Sequeria and Sri Jagtap – did not fail to score goals.

On the flipside, Nivian, Ivan George and Savio D’Souza of WNS failed to convert penalty kick into goals, which resulted in their defeat.

RESULTS: Quaterfinals: WNS N-Trance 6 (Baptist Lobo 3, Doni Mehta 2, Allen Almeida bt TCS 0; IBM 3 (Varun Jaypal 2, Ramnath Vishvanathan) bt AXA 0; Wipro BPO 3 (Michael D’Cruz 3) bt Occeans Connect 0; Ventura 4 (Savio Sequiera 2, Himanshu, Sri Jagtap) bt WNS (Faizal Razzak, Viren D’Souza)

It's champagne time for St Vincent's

Photo: Mukund Bhute

JN Petit celebrates double win here on Saturday

B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE: In an arena where success has a short lifespan and spectre of defeats always staring at you, it is indeed a heroic act for any seven-time title-clincher to grab eyeballs and prove that fire still burns in their hearts even now.

The U-18 Surendra Anand Memorial Inter-School Football Tournament finals saw St Vincent’s and Army Public School (APS) trying to shine through as they were desperate to raise a toast for their retired players of yores. At last, it was St Vincent’s that re-lived their coach Wilson Andrews victory razzmatazz once more.

The Vincent’s were convincing winners against APS, thrashing them 2-1, which turned out to be a close encounter in dying stages of the match, after both the teams went into the first half goalless.

A sparse spectators, occupying some corners of Loyola Ground, saw Craig Pereria and Danish Shaikh pierce a goal apiece for Vincent’s. Deependra Singh Chauhan was the lone scorer for APS.

Craig Pereria made the first breakthrough for Vincent’s, scoring in 40th minute with a powerful header from inside the penalty box on a corner kick.

Danish Shaikh made it 2-0 in 47th after receiving a cross from Akash Deodhar and firing in from the edge of the box to left-hand side of APS goalkeeper Jaswaran Singh.

APS’ first goal came just two minutes away from the final whistle as Deependra Singh Chauhan sent in the goal wide of diving St Vincent’s goalkeeper Sangram Lonkar on a penalty kick.

The Vincent’s failed to raise their visions of a superlative game as Amrutam Christopher and Steven Charles, both forwards, displayed a below par game. Perhaps there was something to do with the ground that they played on today.

Unlike the SSPSM Ground, Loyola Ground was a difficult terrain as it was an arduous task for players to accelerate their pace. In fact, they were tired out towards the end of first half itself. As a result they were found wanting in running past their opponents to cream in the easiest of goals.

RESULTS: U-12: Loyala 1 (Meghraj Nargund) bt St Vincent’s 0; U-14: JN Petit 4 (Rohan Kadam, Jumaid Khimjibhai, Omkar Prabhu, Suraj Kadam) bt Loyala 2 (Dhanraj Nargund, Pranav Siddeshwar); U-16: JN Petit 6 (Pratik Swaminathan 2, Vaibhav More, Ryan Yadgiri, Pizon Kodia, Samarth Gandhi) bt St Vincent’s 5 (Ninan Korunthetical, Allan Cyril, Manish Sirsat, Josua Monserrate); U-18: 2 (Craig Periera, Danish Shaikh) bt Army Public School 1 (Deependra Singh Chauhan)

Rahul Padhayay pots PGI championship

Photo: Mukund Bhute

B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE He hopped mad. Someone’s conceded the finals to him and you know, this just makes him happy. One would think when you are second to somebody, being nervous is routine. But, no, not for Rahul Padhayay. He played a superlative game to take the sting out of top seed Sachin Sancheti forcing him to eat grass in the pulsating final match of the PGI Snooker Championship here on Friday.

When Rahul hopped in joy, he hardly could believe for a moment that he had just buried Sachin into the pit of defeat with a mind-boggling scoreline of 55-36, 69-38, 57-33 and 69-57.

Rahul outplayed Sachin in all manners, potting the balls intelligently and removing a series of snookers loaded against him with great precision. For Sachin, who mostly believed in playing safe, could not capitalise on his present form, which was great till last night.

Today he appeared out of sorts – not getting the potting right and committed fouls at crucial stages of the second, third, fourth and fifth frames. Rahul took advantage of these mistakes and took lead, leaving the top seed gasping behind.

Sachin started his campaign on a high note taking an initial lead 45-17 in the first frame. Rahul bounced back with 19-points break coming close 36-45 in his favour. “I needed just a pink to pot, but I faltered. Sachin, however, got the color and won the frame,” Rahul told Herald after the match.

Sachin got an early lead in the second frame, but could not check Rahul’s juggernut from rolling. After taking a vital seven-point break to come close to Sachin 7-14, Rahul played wonderfully well exhibiting the skills of potting and gathered a crucial break of 45 points. “This gave me immense confidence and I realised I could win against Sachin’s calibre if I maintained the same tempo. I won the frame 69-38,” he said.

Sachin began his third frame with a bang taking an early lead of 26-9 lead. Rahul, however, grabbed every opportunity coming his way and collected 17 vital break points.

There was scope for Sachin to consolidate on 26-23 scoreline in his favour, but frittered away by committing fouls on couple of occasions conceding 24 crucial points to Rahul.

Rahul also got 32 break points at a crucial juncture which gave him scope to vanquish Sachin. Fifth frame was a cakewalk for Rahul, who won the frame 43-5.

Sachin to lock horns with Rahul in finals

Photo: Mukund Bhute

Sachin Sancheti pots to glory

B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE: There is something magical in the manner a cueist struts his stuff on the snooker board. That calculated push, that perfect poise and his deadly potting are enough to send spectators in a tizzy. While cueists like Harish Talawade and Jaideep Deshpande have been wowing snooker-lovers with their style, not far behind are Deccan Gymkhana’s Sachin Sancheti and Rahul Padhayay, who have ruled the roost with the same explosive energy in this year’s Poona Goan Institute (PGI) Snooker Championship.

Playing in his semifinals match here on Thursday, Sachin defeated Tony D’Silva with 4 frames to one after going down fighting in the first frame. In another semifinals, Rahul Padhayay beat Jaideep Khandekar after losing first two frames. With these semifinal wins, Sachin will now meet Rahul Padhayay in the finals to be played on Friday.

Sachin won the match 29-55, 65-54, 65-40, 68-2, 48-41. The top seed started his low-key campaign in the first frame making far too many mistakes, allowing Tony to grab the opportunity to pot the balls with ease. “I should give credit to Tony. He played an excellent first frame,” Sachin told Maharashtra Herald after the match.

The next two frames – second and third – too was no different from the first. Sachin conceded initial leads to Tony. But unlike the first frame, he rocked back strongly to pot colors and reds consistently.

The fifth frame was a real test for both players. It turned out to be black-ball-frame match. The score then was 3-1. “I needed pink, but he potted it. Instead of potting the black, Tony played safe. If he could have potted, the scores would have read 3-2,” Sachin said.

“Though Tony is a good opponent, he was not able to consolidate upon his early leads in first three frames. He, however, was getting me the snookers, but I was able to remove them,” he said.

In another semifinals, Rahul beat Jaideep 29-73, 26-62, 47-22, 59-47, 59-34 and 68-43. It was riveting match as Padhayay lost his first two frames and then raised the visions of his comeback and triumphed.

RESULTS: SEMIFINALS: Sachin Sancheti (Deccan Gymkhana) bt Tony D’Silva (PGI) 29-55, 65-54, 65-40, 68-2, 48-41; Rahul Padhayay (Deccan Gymkhana) bt Jaideep Khandekar (Pradhikaran Youth Forum) 29-73, 26-62, 47-22, 59-47, 59-34, 68-43.

Expedition homecoming

Photo: Mukund Bhute

Maj Gen K Babyya talking to Capt Kirankumar Giri

B D Narayankar

bapun@sakalherald.com

PUNE: They waded their way on their cycles chanting ‘Bombay Sappers Zindabad-Maharashtra Zindabad’ on the premises of Bombay Engineering Sappers Headquarters as if they were commemorating a victory of an hard-fought battle. One could have imagined they were vociferous about their victory after having vanquished the enemies with sophisticated weapons. But that was not the case. Instead, they did it after pedaling thousands of kilometers for five days understanding the problems of ex-servicemen and cultural heritage of Konkan Maharashtra.

After a five days of cycling expedition in Konkan region, as many as 31 young officers of Bombay Sappers, who began their journey on July 22, finally returned to BEG headquarters here on Thursday after Major General (VSM) K Babayya flagged in the expedition.

After a brief introduction, Expedition Leader Captain Kirankumar Giri and senior most young officer Lt Siddharth Vyshampayam gave a detailed account of their expedition to Babayya.

Speaking to Maharashtra Herald, Siddharth said the expedition was planned with an aim to foster the spirit of adventure and imbibing rich culture and history of Konkan Maharashtra. “We traversed major parts of Kolhapur, Sidhudurg and Ratnagiri regions for five days on cycle and vehicle,” he informed.

Apart from visiting Kolhapur, Sindhudurg, Deogarh, Vijaygarh and Raigarh forts, the team interacted with ex-servicemen and widows, making them aware of recruitment policies, ECHS and various other facilities. “Among all the forts that we visited, we liked Vijaydurg fort the most for its magnificence and enormity,” he said.

What was striking about it was the laying of huge boulders in and around one-kilometer radius of Vijaydurg fort. “This was done to protect from Portuguese and British invasions. No ship could sail near the fort due to heavy stones. Even if it did, it got stuck in the sea,” Siddharth said.

The team was particularly moved by recruitment problems faced by people there. “Many urged the authorities concerned to reduce the height requirement for army recruitment. They urged them to adopt the policy prevalent in Garhwal and many other hilly regions where people’s height generally is less,” he added.

The team also studied the terrain and updated the data on natural resources.

Top seed Sachin sails into semis

B D Narayankar

PUNE: He might have helped himself into the quarterfinals of the PGI Snooker Championships, but he played the game as though he was playing for the life. This was the feeling oozing out from a confident-looking Sachin Sancheti, top-seed player, after pulverizing Jaideep Deshpande in the quarterfinal match played here on Wednesday.

Living up to his reputation, Sachin beat Jaideep 47-49, 57-29, 67-21, 72-22 easily in four frames after losing the neck-and-neck first-frame battle.

Sachin began his campaign in great style, but went down in the last stages of the frame when Jaideep got a snooker against him. “I was trying to pot the green, but my opponent got a snooker against me by fluke and I lost eight points. Jaideep then turned the tables against me, while I needed just one color to pot. I was a bit unlucky,” Sachin told Maharashtra Herald after the match.

Sachin soon was cuing for safety after losing first frame. In second, he played his game with caution and did not lose any opportunity to pot colors. He won third and fourth frames as the balls were rolling in his favour. “Jaideep made grave mistakes on which I capitalized,” he said.

With this win, Sachin booked his berth in semis and would warm up his hands against Tony D’Silva on Thursday morning.

Sachin, however, has not taken D’Silva lightly. “He is a good senior player. I respect his game,” he told on the eve of the semifinal match. These words, nonetheless, must not mesmerize snooker-lovers. They know it well that Sachin had an upper hand against D’Silva as he had forced a couple of defeats over the latter in league matches. “I beat him with 80-points margin,” Sachin said.

In another match, Rahul Padhyay beat Satish Karad 5-62, 47-39, 75-46, 27-56, 64-46 and Tony D’Silva trounced Bhushan Sahne 60-37, 58-12, 61-19 in straight frames. With these wins, both also have stormed into semifinals of the tournament.

RESULTS: Sachin Sancheti bt Jaideep Deshpande 47-49, 57-29, 67-21, 72-22; Rahul Padhyay bt Satish Karad 5-62, 47-39, 75-46, 27-56, 64-46; Tony D’Silva bt Bhushan Sahne 60-37, 58-12, 61-19