by Suman Gupta
Falcons tame Bashers to win MPL TT crown
Mumbai, June 19: Thunder Falcons rose to the challenge as they played to their potential and produced some impressive performances to outplay Century Bashers, racing to a convincing 140-50 point victory in the finals of the DCB Bank-Mumbai Premier League (MPL) – Table Tennis 2023, and played at the Prabhodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul, Vile Parle, on Sunday night. The MPL was organized by The Suburban Table Tennis Association (TSTTA, Mumbai) in association with the Mumbai City District Table Tennis Association (MCDTTA)
The triumphant Thunder Falcons players received the glittering ‘champions’ trophy and a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakh from Chief Guest Indian GM Pravin Thipsay, while Century Bashers were presented with the runners-up trophy and a cheque of Rs 75,000. The two losing semi-finalists, Ping Panthers and Super Titans received a cash award of Rs 50,000 each.
Falcons started on a winning note as Sana D’Souza defeated Vaishnavi Jaiswal 2-1 (11-5, 11-8, 9-11) in the girls’ U-17 first match. Later, Falcons boys’ U-17 player Vineet Deepak proved too good for Chaitanya Ahuja and won all three games for a 3-0 (11-2, 11-8, 11-7) win to give his team a 50-10 lead after two matches.
Bashers’ doubles combination of Kedar Kasbekar (veteran men) and Yuvraj Yadav (boys’ U-15) rallied to beat the Falcons duo of Suhas Rane and Vibhum Sadhale 2-1 (7-11, 11-0, 12-10) to cut the lead to 30-60 and a fighting chance.
But, Falcons regained the winning momentum as they won the next three games to knock the fight out of their rivals. Falcons star player Reagan Albuquerque showed his class against Chinmaya Somaiya scoring an authoritative 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4) win in the men’s singles fourth match to enjoy a 90-30 point lead.
Later, Manushree Patil produced a strong aggressive performance against Senhora D’Souza in the women’s singles tie by posting a 2-1 (11-5, 11-8, 5-11) win to take Falcons closer to the finish line (110-40).
Reagan returned to the table and combined perfectly with Sana to quell the challenge from Bashers pairing of Chinmaya and Vaishnavi to pull off a 2-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-3) win in the mixed doubles encounter and to put the team on the threshold of victory (130-50).
Vibhum completed the formalities by winning the first game against Yuvraj for the winning 10 points and triggering celebrations in the Thunder Falcons camp.
Result –finals: Thunder Falcons beat Ping Panthers 140-50.
