Tamil Nadu paddlers beat Sri Lanka

S M Jiffry Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent at Ganegoda

The visiting Tamil Nadu State table tennis team defeated Sri Lanka National Tennis team by 9 matches to 4 in their table tennis encounter played for the Surendra Perera Memorial Trophy played at the Jagath Rajapakse International Indoor Stadium at Ganegoda on Saturday.

The paddlers from Tamil Nadu having more exposure in their country put up a fine performance with even Sri Lanka’s No 1 ranked Rohan Sirisena (men) and Ishara Madurangi (women) suffering defeats.

The Sri Lankan paddlers as usual played their attacking style of game but their opponents countered this beautifully by playing overall in a defensive form first by the ‘chop’ and returned with a ‘back spin’ and the local paddlers could not counter this.

But one little girl stood out for Sri Lanka and she featured in two of Sri Lanka’s four wins. It was 17 year old schoolgirl from Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda Erandi Warusawitharne ranked No 2 in Sri Lanka. She stood like a ‘rose among the prickles.’

She won her first match against Kanniappa Narmada defeating her quite comfortable 3-0. She gave absolutely no chance giving her opponent to come back winning 11/7, 11/8 and 11/6.

Her next win came in the women’s doubles and partnered by her skipper Ishara Madurangi they beat the Tamil Nadu pair of Vidya and Narmada. After losing the first set, they came back strongly to win the next three sets by the identical scores of 11/9 to romp home winners 3-1.

Sri Lanka’s other two wins were in Mixed Doubles by Ishara Madurangi and Rohan Sirisena who regained some of the lost prestige by defeating E Prabaharan and N Narmada 3-1.

Rohan Sirisena who after losing the first singles match to Lakshmi Sathiswaran came back strongly in the second singles to defeat Sriram Sushmith. He lost the second and third to trail at one stage 1-2 but won the last two sets.

Selena Deepthi - a 12 year old schoolgirl made a clean sweep by winning all four matches in the under 12 category for Tamil Nadu.

Men’s Singles

Rohan Sirisena (SL) beat Sriram Sushmith (TN) 15/13, 9/11, 8/11, 12/14, 11/9

Women’s Singles

Narasim Vidya (TN) beat Ishara Madurangi (SL) 11/4, 11/7, 8/11, 11/9.

Kanniappa Narmada (TN) beat Chandima Madhushani (SL) 11/6, 11/4, 11/9.

Narasim Vidya (TN) beat Umaya Tharakie (SL) 11/8, 12/10, 11/10. Erandi Warusawitharna (SL) beat Narasim Vidya (TN) 11/7 11/8, 11/6.

Under 12 Girls

Selena Deepthi (TN) beat Loshini Jayawardena (SL) 11/8, 11/5, 11/5. Selena Deepthi (TN) beat Thanusha Rodrigo (SL) 11/8, 11/5, 11/8. Selena Deepthi (TN) beat Ochini Dissanayake 11/7, 11/7, 11/4. Selena Deepthi (TN) beat Piumi Dewdini (SL) 11/4, 11/6, 11/4.

Men’s Doubles

Narayana Sathiswaran /Sriram Sushmith (TN) beat Rohan Sirisena/Nirmala Jayasinghe 11/7, 11/8, 11/7.

Women’s Doubles

Ishara Madurangi/Erandi Warusawitharna (SL) beat N Vidya/K Narmada (TN) 9/11, 11/9, 11/9, 11/9.

Mixed Doubles

Ishara Madurangi/Rohan Sirisena (SL) beat E Prabaharan/N Narmada (TN) 11/9, 6/11, 11/7, 11/6.

Sriram Sushmith/N Vidya (TN) beat Erandi Warusawitharna/Nirmala Jayasinghe (SL) 11/7, 11/9, 12/10.