Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club produced a solid combined performance and outplayed IIT Bombay by an overwhelming 5-0 margin in the concluding Group-A round-robin league of the Hyatt Regency – Mumbai Inter-Club Squash League 2018, orgainsed by the Indian Squash Professionals and played at the Hyatt Regency courts.
Shashi Pandey of JVPG club
The Juhu Club having pocketed all the 50 points from this, their second victory win took their tally of points to 100 points and finished in second position behind Otters Club, Bandra who topped the group with 110 points from three wins. Goregaon Sports Club with 60 points were placed third and IIT Bombay who lost all three matches were last with just 30 points.
In a group-B encounter, Hyatt Regency defeated Jindal Squash Academy 3-2 with Waqar Pathan winning both his matches, the doubles and singles rubbers. However, hosts Hyatt Regency failed to advance to the semi-finals. Khar Gymkhana with 2 wins and with a tally of 90 points topped the group while Jindal Squash Academy and Hyatt, both with a tally of 80 points each finished in joint second place, but the former with a better win-loss difference of 20-18 (+2) as compared to Hyatt’s 20-17 (+3) difference qualified as the second team from the group. Navi Mumbai lost all three games are were at the bottom with 50 points.
JVPG Club got off to a bright start as Shashi Pandey fought well to overcome Karan Singh 13-11, 11-5 in the first rubber before their double combo of Bhavesh Shah and Urwashi Joshi scored a hard-fought 11-8, 4-11, 11-6 victory against the IIT duo of Abhilash Chandy and Prakash Singh. The JVPG team extended their lead when Aishwary Singh and Shashi Pandey tamed Karan Singh and Kshiteej Prasad 11-7, 11-2 to open up a 3-0 lead. Later, Araash Mehta got the better of Hrishikesh Kulkarni 11-8, 12-10 in the singles tie, fourth rubber before Ashish Mehta and Keval Shah rallied from the loss of the opening game to sideline Manthan and Ramphal Suthar 10-12, 11-4, 12-10 in the fifth and final rubber to complete the win.
Results – Group-A: Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club 5-0 (Shashi Pandey bt Karan Singh 13-11, 11-5; Bhavesh Shah/Urwashi Joshi bt Abhilash Chandy/Prakash Singh 11-8, 4-11, 11-6; Aishwary Singh/Shashi Pandey bt Karan Singh/Kshiteej Prasad 11-7, 11-2; Araash Mehta bt Hrishikesh Kulkarni 11-8, 12-10; Ashish Mehta/Keval Shah bt Manthan/Ramphal Suthar 10-12, 11-4, 12-10).
Group-B: Hyatt Regency beat Jindal Squash Academy 3-2 (Pranay Gianchandani lost Pradeep Chaudhary walkover; Vicky Kalludi/Waqar Pathan bt Avinash Yadav/Rajiv Gupta 11-6, 11-9; Nilesh Pal/Rupesh lost Abhishek Agarwal/Puneet Pareek 11-7, 5-11, 9-11; Waqar Pathan bt Abhishek Agarwal 15-13, 8-11, 11-9; Imroze Pathan/Sanjay Goyal bt Arjun Singh/Deepak Mandal 9-11 11-5 11-4).