Journalism of Courage
Daring Doves got off to the best possible start to their Maharashtra Badminton League (MBL) campaign,trouncing Graceful Gulls 5-0 in the tournaments opening tie on Saturday. More heartening for the Doves was the fact that they didnt drop a single game in any of their five rubbers.
The tournament began with a mens singles that pitted two of Indias most promising youngsters; Thanes Subhankar Dey,18,and the 15-year-old Harsheel Dani,a C category player for whom the Gulls had paid an impressive Rs 70,000 at the auction. It promised to be an exciting clash,but Dey prevailed,taking only 35 minutes to beat Dani in straight games,21-17,21-13.
Trailing 2-0,Gulls needed their mens doubles pair of Nishad Dravid and Shlok Ramachandran to pull a win out of the bag. They fought hard,and stayed in the contest throughout,but they couldnt quite hold their nerve in critical moments,as they lost in 34 minutes to the Doves pair of Prashant Bahatre and Varun Khanvalkar,21-18,21-19.
The two matches that remained would only be of academic interest – with the added incentive,for the players,of individual cash prizes for each match won. Even this reward went only to the Doves. In the second mens singles match,yhree-time Maharashtra state champion Eshan Naqvi took only 20 minutes to defeat Manan Goenka 21-15,21-8.
Winning the mixed doubles proved only slightly more taxing for Jayendra Dole and Sanyogita Ghorpade,who defeated Nachiket Dhaygude and Riya Pillai 21-19,21-16.
