Durgapur, January 18: Anargya Manjunath helped Karnataka held an imminent second-stage advantage as the southern state beat a fighting Madhya Pradesh 3-2 in Junior Girls second round of the 11Sports 79th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium here today.

Telangana, brushing aside a midway threat, pushed North Bengal to the second spot in group C to be the second team to take the top perch and seal their qualification for the main draw with a distinct gain.

In two of the best second round matches in the section, Karnataka looked like rolling past Madhya Pradesh before Anusha Kutumbale resurrected herself to challenge their opponent. With Kushi Viswanath providing the lead with a 3-0 win over Kushi Jain, Anargya cashed in on with a labored win over MP’s No. 1player despite leading 2-0 in the second rubber. But Anusha, who made most of Anargya’s mistakes to level the score, lost the decider after three deuces as the Karnataka girl won 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 5-11, 14-12.

But Anusha, in the company of Aru Vaishnava, yet again came back nicely to win the doubles 3-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-3. Then Anusha beat Kushi rather easily (11-8, 2-11, 11-9, 11-5) to give MP a semblance of chance. But Anargya spoilt it when she beat Kushi Jain 12-10, 11-4, 11-2.

If Telangana depended too much on Varuni Jaiswail to see them through to the next stage, North Bengal looked up to Nikita Sarkar to do it for them. In the bargain, it was Varuni who won both her singles—first against Sataporni De (11-2, 11-6, 11-2) and then Nikita in reverse singles (11-6, 11-7, 12-10). But Pranitha failed to win her first singles against Nikita and lost 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 6-11 to lose advantage as Sataporni and Diksa Biswas combined well to win the doubles against Varuni and V. Laasya 14-12, 6-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-7) to put North Bengal 2-1 up.

But the better equation lasted until the fourth rubber which Varuni won against Nikita, taking the issue to decider. With the onus on Pranitha, she executed her plans well against Sataporni and beat her 10-12, 11-6, 16-14, 11-8, the third game giving the Telangana girl the confidence.

But for these two second round matches in two groups, matches in other groups went along the expected line with group toppers facing no threat. The teams that posted two wins and, more or less, sealed their top slots included Tamil Nadu in group A, hosts West Bengal in group B, Maharashtra A, benefiting through a walkover, in group D, Maharashtra B in group E, Haryana in group F and Gujarat in group F joined both Telangana and Karnataka. With one round of group matches remaining in Junior Girls, Rajasthan could be the second team to qualify from the group as they have a match against lowly Bihartomorrow.

As for Junior Boys, Youth Boys and Youth Girls, the top teams in all eight groups have ensured their march into the main draw with easy wins. But with the second-round matches to be played tonight, it is too early to make any prediction.

Among the 32 states that had sent their entries, Pondicherry had pulled out of the championships. But the Union Territory’s teams were included in all the draws as they were taken out at the TTFI office in New Delhi on January 10.