West Bengal women beat PSPB, regain team title after two years

West Bengal's women regained the team title after a two-year gap, beating holders Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) in the final of the 80th National Table Tennis Championship here Sunday.

The credit must go to West Bengal -- who last won the title at the Manesar Nationals in 2016 and Mousumi Paul to give the kind of start to her team.

But equal recognition should be given to PSPB team think-tank, including coach M. Gharib, who rested an in-form Archana Kamath and preferred Mouma Das, who had very little to show this season in national ranking events with mere 35 points from three appearances.

In other words, in only one of those tournaments she had managed to reach the round of 32.

But more than anything else, the two singles losses that the CWG gold medal winner Manika Batra suffered, first at the hand of Mousumi Paul, a PSPB player loaned to West Bengal, and then Krittwika Sinha Roy, summed up the mood of the team which eventually lost 1-3.

Madhurika, who played the second ..