Rajasthan men's, boys teams storm into historic finals at North Zone Inter-State Badminton Team Championship

JAIPUR: Rajasthan shuttlers created history when their men's and Under-19 boys teams stormed into the finals together in the North Zone Inter-State Badminton Team Championship in Chandigarh on Thursday.
While it was the maiden entry of the Rajasthan men's team into the summit clash, the U-19 boys side made it to the finals for the second year in succession after their feat last year in Jalandhar.
Both Rajasthan men's and U-19 boys continued their victory march with yet another impressive show on the second day of the tournament, organized by the Badminton Association of India.
The men's team stunned the top seeds and last year's champions Delhi 3-1 in an exciting semi-final. It was the first time in the North Zone badminton history that Rajasthan managed to defeat formidable Delhi in the men's team championship event.
Rajasthan won all their three singles matches to help their team reach the best-of-five-match final. Pranay Katta once again gave a perfect start by dismissing Delhi's Tanishq Parashar in straight games. Harsh Chaplot strengthened the team's position by winning his singles to make it 2-0 in favour of Rajasthan.
Delhi tried to make a comeback by winning the first doubles. However, Sanskar Saraswat sealed Delhi's fate by ousting Vaibhav Jadhav in a thrilling three-gave encounter. Sanskar lost the opening game narrowly but bounced back gallantly to clinch the crucial 19-21, 21-11, 21-9 win.
Junior India player Sanskar was also the chief architect of U-19 boys team triumph over Haryana. The Jodhpur teenager won both his singles and doubles (with partner Manish Phogat) matches to almost single-handedly guide Rajasthan to back-to-back finals.
However, it was curtains for Rajasthan U-19 girls team as they squandered away a 1-0 lead to go down fighting against Haryana 1-2.
Rajasthan coach Tribhuvan Bisht lauded the efforts of the entire team. "It was a commendable performance by the players. The men's team beating Delhi and reaching the final was a magic moment. All the three singles players lived up to their potential to win their respective matches. Sanskar was the star performer in the U-19 boys semis too," said Bisht.
Results (semi-finals)
Men's: Rajasthan bt Delhi 3-1 (Pranay Katta bt Tanishq Parashar 21-17, 21-13; Harsh Chaplot bt Sonna Ginpaul 24-22, 21-17; Denish Shrivastava-Shubham Patel lost to Bhavya Chhabra-Param Choudhary 15-21, 14-21; Sanskar Saraswat bt Vaibhav Jadhav 19-21, 21-11, 21-9)
U-19 boys: Rajasthan bt Haryana 2-0 (Sanskar Saraswat bt Aumkaran Sharma 21-12, 21-6; Sanskar Saraswat-Manish Phogat bt Aumkaran Sharma-Ishaan Sihag 19-21, 21-15, 21-14)
U-19 girls: Rajasthan lost to Haryana 1-2 (Parul Choudhary bt Garima Kundu 15-21, 21-13, 21-17; Kavya Swami-Poonam Swami lost to Akansha Singh-Ruchi Chahal 21-18, 16-21, 14-21; Suhasi Verma lost to Saanvi Aneja 14-21, 13-21).