Otters Club, Bandra dished out a strong combined performance, to record their second consecutive win, by defeating IIT Bombay by a handsome 4-1 margin in a Group-A round-robin league match of the Hyatt Regency – Mumbai Inter-Club Squash League 2018, orgainsed by the Indian Squash Professionals and played at the Hyatt Regency courts.
Ganesh Kadam
The Bandra club had earlier defeated JVPG Club 3-2, and now with a total of 70 points occupy the pole position in this group. JVPG Club and Goregaon Sports Club, both with a win each and with identical 50 points are in joint second place while IIT Bombay who are yet to record a win are at the bottom.
Meanwhile, Khar Gymkhana won the crucial deciding rubber to overcome hosts Hyatt Regency 3-2 in a closely contested Group-B encounter. This was the first win for Khar Gym who had lost 2-3 to Jindal Squash Academy in the opening group match. Hyatt suffered their first defeat after they had defeated Navi Mumbai Club 3-2 in their first match. Jindal with two wins and 60 points sit atop the group, followed by Hyatt Regency and Khar Gym, both having recorded a win each and with 50 points share the second place. Navi Mumbai lost both and are last in the group.
Otters dominated from the outset and quickly won the first four rubbers before conceding the fifth rubber by awarding a walkover. Ganesh Kadam provided them with a perfect start defeating Kshiteej Prasad 11-8, 13-11 in the first rubber, which set the tone for their success. Later, Manish Chotrani and Anshul Goyal combined well to overcome the IIT Bombay pair of Abhilash Chandy and Prakash Singh 11-7, 10-11, 11-10 and in the next, which was also a double tie, Dipesh Jadhav and Sanjay Pawar proved too good as they outplayed Karan Singh and Kshiteej Prasad winning at 11-6, 11-4 to open up a 3-0 lead for Otters. The Otters team continued their dominance as Anshul Goyal scored an easy 11-5, 11-7 win over Ramphal Suthar in the fourth rubber. The Otters pair of Ansh Shetty and Tanay Panjabi did not get on the court conceding a walkover in the final rubber to the IIT Bombay opponents of Prashant and Yatin.
Khar Gymkhana will clash with Navi Mumbai Squash and Otters Club meet Goregaon SC in next week’s matches on Sunday, April 22.
Results – Group-A: Otters Club beat IIT Bombay 4-1 (Ganesh Kadam bt Kshiteej Prasad 11-8, 13-11; Anshul Goyal/Manish Chotrani bt Abhilash Chandy/Prakash Singh 11-7, 10-11, 11-10; Dipesh Jadhav/Sanjay Pawar bt Karan Singh/Kshiteej Prasad 11-6, 11-4; Anshul Goyal bt Ramphal Suthar 11-5, 11-7; Ansh Shetty/Tanay Panjabi lost Prashant/Yatin walkover).
Group-B: Khar Gymkhana beat Hyatt Regency 3-2 (Pranay Gianchandani lost Waqar Pathan 2-11, 1-11; Prashant Mohite/Rajesh Rajani bt Ajit Singh/Vicky Kalludi 8-11, 11-9, 11-4; Vijay Waghela/Vishant Salvi lost Ankita Sharma/Waqar Pathan 9-11, 6-11; Aishwarya Khubchandani bt Rupesh 12-10, 8-11, 11-7; Mahesh Chandnani/Vishant Salvi bt Imroze Pathan/Naresh Kumar 11-5, 11-5).