Air India and Assam registered contrasting victories to cruise into the finals of the mixed team event of the 42nd Inter State-Inter Zonal Junior National Badminton Tournament played here at the Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
Air India who got a bye into the semi finals beat Maharashtra 3-1, while Assam beat Uttar Pradesh 3-2 in a thrilling encounter. Assam was also given a bye into the last four.
The mixed doubles team of Aryaman Tandon and Mithula U K started off Air India’s campaign with a bang as they beat the pair of Rishi Lambe and Akshan Shetty 21-10, 21-15 to take an early lead. Rahul Bharadwaj doubled the lead for Air India with a sublime 21-11, 21-11 victory over Arya Bhivpathaki in the boys’ single competition. Malvika Bansod registered a hard-fought 21-13, 17-21, 21-14 victory over Purva Barve in the girls’ singles competition to reduce the gap for Maharashtra. But their joy was short-lived as Rahul and Aryaman teamed up to beat Sourabh Kerhalkar and Deep Rambhiya 21-9, 21-9 in the boys’ double encounter and seal the tie.
Assam also made a great start with Orijit Chaliha and Ashmita Chaliha winning their boys’ singles and girls’ singles matches respectively to give Assam a healthy 2-0 lead into the tie. Orijit had to dig deep to beat Abhyansh Singh 21-13, 18-21, 22-20, while Ashmita picked up a rather easy 21-13,21-14 win. However, they UP made a stunning comeback as Shruti Mishra and Samridhi Singh beat Isharani Baruah and Chimran Kalita 21-14, 21-7 in the girls’ doubles match to make it 1-2 in their team’s favour. Harsh Singh and Akash Yadav then won their boys’ doubles match 21-16, 21-13 against Abhishek Borah and Rajshekar Das to restore parity. With the points leveled, the tie was poised for an exciting finish with Orijit and Ashmita teaming up against Shruti Mishra and Abhyansh Singh in the crucial mixed doubles match. Both the teams were engaged in a fierce battle with Assam eventually prevailing 21-13, 18-21, 21-15 to set up a final date with Air India.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra had beaten Delhi 3-0, while Uttar Pradesh got the better of Kerala 3-2.