The difference in the end was probably that. With the disparity in scores failing to exceed even one point till the very end in the crucial fourth game, A Sharath Kamal turned around at his opponents and smirked at their cheers. A Amal Raj, as he later confessed, did not even hear the cheers one bit despite the stunned arena rooting for him. Instead, he was watching the ball all the time. The 20-year-old from Chennai might have lost that game to his senior state mate, but he held his nerve and retained the spunk to go for the kill in the decider. As he hit the decisive smash at 8-10, the 3-2 win over the India No 1 meant champions Petroleum Sports Promotion Board were pushed off their inter-institutional table tennis perch for the first time in six years here today at the Siri Fort Sports Complex. The last time PSPB lost was in 2001, also to Railway Sports Promotion Board, but with Sharath on the latter’s side. Today though, it was Raj’s show. The stunning win over Sharath came after he had already taken care of India No 2 Subhajit Saha in the second match of the tie. And while the second upset had the makings of a full-fledged drama, the first one was just one blurred scene. Saha seemed almost startled into submission by the utter gumption that Raj came up with — the latter hitting, at one point of time, a side spin smash that passed straight under Saha’s arm. That 11-6, 11-3, 13-11 win squared the tie after Sharath’s easy opening win over Sourav Chakraborty. And right in the middle of those two Raj starrers was the very important cameo by Anirban Nandi, who tightened his grip after Soumyadeep Roy’s attempted revival, winning 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 11-9. The decider though, was a thrill to watch as the two Chennai lads threw all they had at each other. Sharath won the first game at 11-5, but that was no deterrent to Raj, who came up with even harder posers in the next to even it. The last three games were all nail-biters, and it could have been anybody’s game, only Raj chose to grab it, winning 5-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8.The consolation for the Petroleum team came through the women. The duo of Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das summoned all their experience to stifle Banks’ Sports Board’s challenge. After Poulomi beat Swetha Kumaravel and Mouma edged Mamta Prabhu, K Shamini lost the third match to N Arul Selvi. But Poulomi snuffed out Mamta in the return singles to win it 3-1.
