Kolkata, August 24: Continuing their relentless domination, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) retained the men and women’s team crowns for yet another time in the Ordnance Factory Board-conducted 42nd All-India Inter-Institutional Table Tennis Championships at the Khudiram Indoor Stadium here today.

On Thursday, PSPB’s Youth boys and girls retained titles after an all-win record they posted in the round-robin matches to complete the clean sweep. Incidentally, this was the tenth consecutive title triumph for men’s team and one less for the women’s squad.

The Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), who defeated the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the semifinals yesterday, lacked the firepower in the finals and finished runners-up. Nevertheless, they can take pride in the fact that they managed to put up brave fights against the marauding PSPB paddlers in both the sections.

Anthony Amalraj, employing a close-to-the-table game plan, began aggressively taking the first two sets. But brave heart Soumajit Sarkar, matching his rival’s wits, played superbly to take lead for the first time at 5-6 and then went on to win the set 11-7. However, Amalraj didn’t waste any time in the next to wrap it up quickly for a 3-1 win.

As for Sharath Kamal, it was a cautious beginning against Railways stalwart Anirban Nandi. But the world No. 73, executing some scorching backhand long shots, unsettled Nandi, who was able to pace up his game and win the third set at 11-7. The appreciative crowd was also witness to some long rallies which brought out the good, long returns from Sharath during the game. Soon after Sharath settled the issue with 11-7 win to give PSPB 2-0 lead.

In the left-hander versus left-hander third rubber, Souvik Basu Roy proved right against Sanil Shetty with great deception and forcing PSPB to play the fourth rubber. The tall and lanky Roy won 12-14, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9. Amalraj won his second match against Nandi to put the title issue beyond RSPB.

In the women’s final, K. Shamini provided the spark with her cool head to beat Takeme Sarkar 3-0. She was trailing 5-10 in the second set but staged a fine comeback taking seven points on the trot to go 2-0 up. After that, Shamini toyed with her opponent to finish off the deciding game in quick time. Old war horse Mouma Das was rusty against veteran Anandita Chakraborty, yet the former managed to put it across her RSCB rival, despite losing the second set 10-12. Then it was left to reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak to complete the demolition task but she was stretched by Shweta Parte who won a marathon 19-17 game to put Ghatak on notice. However, the threat remained a veiled one.

Understandably, the focus now shifts to individual slugfests for the coveted singles crown in men and women’s sections, besides the doubles and mixed doubles titles on offer. With the stars set to parade the arena from tomorrow, the pretenders soaked in limelight in the preliminaries that began today.

RESULTS: (ALL FINALS):

MEN: PSPB bt RSPB 3-1 (A Amalraj bt Soumajit Sarkar 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-3,  A Sharath Kamal bt Anirban Nandi 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, Sanil Shetty lost to Souvik Basu Roy 14-12, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, A Amalraj bt Anirban Nandi 11-8,11-7,12-10).

WOMEN: PSPB bt RSPB 3-0 (K. Shamini bt Takeme Sarkar 11-9-12-10, 11-8, Mouma Das bt Anandita Chakraborty 12-10, 11-6, 10-12, 11-5, Poloumi Ghatak bt Shweta Parte 17-19, 11-5, 11-7, 13-11).