Siliguri, December 3: Chitrax Bhatt played the anchoring role to perfection to take holders Gujarat into the Sub-Junior Boys final of the 11Even Sports 78th Cadet and Sub-Junior Nationals at the SMC Stadium here today.

Bhatt who put Gujarat in the lead when he beat Deepit Patil with a 11-7, 11-7, 11-13, 11-8 score also was instrumental in winning his reverse singles against a fighting Dev Shroff which clinched the issue in favour of the reigning champions.  

In fact, Bhatt led 2-1 in the fourth rubber but an excellent come back by Dev pushed the Gujarat lad on the back foot as the Maharashtra left-hander equalled the score. When the matter came to the decider, Bhatt was 5-2 ahead but after change of ends, Dev launched some mixed attacks of excellent backhand placing and forehand scorchers to bring the score down to 4-5. But then a couple of mistakes on the part of the Maharashtra boy helped Bhatt the advantage as he upped the ante to close it on his rival.

Earlier, Dharoiya Parmar had beaten Dev 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3 which gave Gujarat the important led before the Maharashtra duo of Dev and Deepit pulled back through their doubles win (3-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-6). But in the end Bhatt denied any further luxury as he beat a determined Dev. In the end, it was an easy 3-1 win for Gujarat.

DELHI THROUGH

Gujarat will take on Delhi, who blanked out West Bengal 3-0, in the final to be played later this evening. After Yashansh Malik, Shreyaans Goel took their singles to put Delhi 2-10 up, it was for the Delhi pair of Arush Dutt and Payas Jain to see them through which they did without any inhibition.

Following in their footsteps, the Delhi girls entered the final in the Sub-junior section when they beat a hapless North Bengal 3-1, thanks to the combination of Vanshika Bhargava, Anubha Bajaj and Tisha Kohli. 

Though Anubha lost her singles to Nikitar Sarkar in straight games, North Bengal’s best bet, the onus was on Vanshika to restore parity which she did agains Sataporni Di with a 11-6, 13-11, 11-7 win. Then Vanshika and Tisha combined together to beat the North Bengal duo 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5 as Nikita and Sataporni gave a good fight. In the fourth rubber, Vanshika accounted for a tired Nikita 11-3, 5-11, 11-8, 11-3.