Bengal Women Win National TT Team Title After 2 Decades

For the first time in 20 years, the West Bengal women's team beat Maharashtra A 3-0 in the final of the senior National table tennis championships which took place in Manesar, Haryana, on Thursday.

The winning team comprises Krittika Sinha, Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Sutirtha Mukherjee, veteran Anindita Chakraborty, Moumita Dutta and Shreya Ghosh, who sealed the title for this year.

In the quest for more success, the triumphant Anindita (39), who coaches others and is also a state selector, used all her experience to knock out her opponent at the Manesar Sports Club and it was a special one for her. Since she started playing table tennis, Anindita has continued to compete at the national level and faced younger challengers.

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Some of her achievements are being part of Bengal's title-winning squads in 1993 and 1994, and having played an important role in the 1997 Nationals in Jammu & Kashmir. This was the time when the state women's team last won the prestigious Jayalakshmi Cup. While the team had a veteran player, it also was supported by Olympians -- Mouma Das, Poulami Ghatak, former national champions Mantu Ghosh and Kasturi Chakraborty, who were the other members of the 1997 team. While Mouma is representing PSPB in the ongoing Nationals, Mantu and Kasturi have retired.

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While facing off with Maharashtra A's Amrute in the summit clash, the Bengal veteran Anindita showed an incredible performance against her rival 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 where the Maharasthra A team failed to reproduce the magic.

Meanwhile, the Bengal men's team of Anirban Nandi, Arjun Ghosh, Sanmoy Paranjape, Sougata Sarkar and Surajit Das took home the bronze medal after losing to Haryana 0-3.

Feature Image Credit: YouTube

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