Anand, Nehwal shine in PSPB badminton tourney

New Delhi, Mar 18 (UNI) National champion B Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal put up spirited performances as ONGC and BPCL emerged victorious in the 29th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) Badminton tournament here today.

In the Men's category final, Ajay Jayram of IOCL downed Thomas Kurien of ONGC 16-21, 14-21 to give his team a 1-0 lead.

However, ONGC bounced back as Anand thrashed P Kashyap of IOCL (22-20, 21-14) in straight sets.

IOCL regained the lead through JBS Vidyadhar who downed Siddhratha Jain 10-21, 19-21.

ONGC kept up the pressure as Diju V and Thomas Kurien beat JBS Vidyadhar and Markose Bristow of IOCL 21-17, 21-07 while Rupesh Kumar and Anand downed P Gopichand and Jaseel P Ismail (8-4 retired) to emerge victorious (3-2).

In the Women's category, BPCL defeated IOCL (2-0)as Saina Nehwal defeated B R Meenakshi of IOCL (21-15, 21-10 while Shruti Kurien and Jwala Gutta of BPCL defeated B R Meenakshi and Aparna Balan of IOCL (21-12, 21-10).

Similarly, in the Veterans Category, the final match was won by BPCL, who defeated EIL (2-0). Milind Ghate of BPCL defeated A Khosla of EIL (21-10, 21-05), Milind Ghate and Pradeep Iyangar of BPCL beat Y K Sinha and R Ghosh of EIL (21-08, 21-14).

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