Indore, February 14: The A team of Indian Audit (IA&AD), mustering all their combined experience, beat Maharashtra A in the Men’s 40+ category final of the 26th Masters National Table Tennis Championships at the Abhay Prashal here today.

The crown came their way after an inspiring game plan which worked to their advantage despite IA&D losing their first rubber to Maharashtra. The man who provided Maharashtra the lead was Pankaj Rahane who outwitted Kasturi Srivatsa Chakravarthy with his deceptive service and excellent drives, employing both flanks.

Indeed, Chakravarthy was equally up to the task, but his failure to keep the ball on table cost him the match, especially after he lost his steam in the decider as Rahane won 12-10, 10-12, 11-9, 3-11, 11-4.

Next in line was Abu Rizwan who despite losing the opening game hit a nice rhythm to outplay Rohit Chaudhari 8-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 to restore parity. But it was Santanu Banerjee who suffered blisters took medical assistance before coming back to put IA&AD in the lead when he defeated Manish Rawat 3-11, 11-13, 14-12, 11-5, 11-7.

In the fourth tie, Chakravarthy sealed the fate of Maharashtra A with a fine performance despite losing the extended fourth game to win 11-3, 19-21, 11-4, 11-8.

Inspiring Harsh

Delhi A, inspired by Harsh Chopra, defeated Maharashtra A 3-2 in a thrilling final of the Men 50+ to annex the title. In the see-saw match which lasted two and a half hours and saw a vociferous Maharashtra players rooting for their players, the cool-headed left-hander retained his composure to win the deciding rubber against Naveen Salian 7-11, 11-7, 4-11, 12-10, 11-6 for win the crown. In the opening game as well, Harsh Chopra provided the lead with a 22-20, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10 win over Vivek Alwani.

But Maharashtra bounced back into the match when Naveen Salian beat Hira Goswami 10-12, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8, 14-12 before Nitin Toshniwal put them ahead with a 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 triumph over Sanjay Vashist.

A precariously placed Delhi hit back with Hira Goswami winning his reverse snivels against Vivek Alwani 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, leaving the decider in the hands of Harsh Chopra.

In men’s 60+ Maharashtra A made it a one-sided affair, beating Madhya Pradesh A 3-0. Dinkar Selarka defeatd Pramod Soni11-6, 11-5, 11-9 to provide Maharashtra A with a solid start which was later consolidated through Prakash Kelker who downed Vipin Pndit 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-4.

With a 2-0 cushion, Maharashtra wasted no time in putting it across hosts’ team as Jayant Kulkarni made it as simple as possible downing Ashok Kumar Ingle 11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 13-11 to seal the title in their favour.

Earlier, the Men 60+ title went to Maharashtra A blanked out Madhya Pradesh A 3-0 as a compensation after their team had figured in all three finals.