Day 3: How did Kanpur fare?

Athletics

In men’s 200m heats, Deepak Jorwal and Mohit Yadav, both qualified comfortably for the semifinals held later in the day. Deepak came second in his semi-final round clocking 23.1s and Mohit came first with a time of 23.5s. Both will run in the finals to be held tomorrow. In women’s 200m, Ruchika narrowly missed qualifying by a margin of 0.2s as she stood 4th in her heat.

In 800m Men’s race, Kanpur’s hopes were carried by Jaswinder Singh and Deepak Meena. Jassi lead the competition throughout the race but he was closely followed by Rahul Jhajharia of Delhi. Rahul, in a late surge, overtook him to finish 1st by a margin of just 0.4s. Deepak was in the thick of the race but pulled through to finish 4th.

In women’s 800m, Asha and Neelakshi finished 7th and 10th respectively to miss a podium finish. The same was the case in Javelin throw where Bala and Sravan finished 6th and 8th with Bala’s distance of 44.42m falling short by 2m for the third spot. In women’s High Jump it was a moment of glory for Shanti Shree as she finished 3rd. Devyani finished a joint 7th to round off Kanpur’s participation in the event.

Men’s Long Jump saw Kanpur’s Jay Pratap finish 4th to earn 1 valuable point for the team. Sachin Salim was a close 5th.

Badminton

The first match was played between Rohit of Kanpur and Puneet of Patna. Rohit was in good form and won the match 21-4, 21-4 in straight sets. The Kanpur fans got to see some classic smashes and drops from Rohit.

The only hiccup for the host side came in the second game, as Devvrat of Kanpur was pitted against Vijay of Patna. The lone wolf, Vijay, took a lead of 11-10 with some dazzling backhands and cross court smashes. The melodrama heightened when points flip-flopped with both players succeeded in securing consecutive points tying the set at 18-18. With some loose returns and error in judgement Kanpur handed over the set to Patna 18-21. The bout continued in the second set as the home team made a good start leading 11-7 till mid-break of the set. Unfortunately, Vijay incurred a leg injury trying to return a cross-drop. In spite of the injury, the Patna lad came from behind and took the score to 16-14. What followed was an unimpressive show from Devvrat with faults, off court shots and weak returns losing the match 18-21, 16-21.

Kanpur regained their composure and defeated their challengers in straight sets of 21-5 each in the doubles matchup. The Patna duo were clueless to the crisp smashes and cross court drops of Gopichand as Kanpur scored 9 consecutive points to win the first set.

The third singles took place between Gopichand of Kanpur and Sunil of Patna. He won 21-3, 21-3 in straight sets. Gopichand troubled Sunil throughout the match with his drops. Overall the Kanpur boys won 3-1 over Patna lads.

Basketball

The women’s team bounced back securing a resounding victory of 43-22 against Guwahati. They looked disciplined and every bit in command. The first quarter was plagued with fouls by Guwahati which Kanpur mercilessly converted to points. Two crucial goals by Guwahati girl Charmie steered them to a slim 1-point lead after the first quarter. Kanpur unleashed all their weapons in the next quarter which saw them securing 19 points against Guwahati barely managing 5. They demonstrated exceptional coordination, strong defense and a good accuracy. Some timely baskets by Sonal and Avani with some valuable passes by Shaily helped Kanpur seal their victory after the second quarter with the scoreboard reading 25-12. Guwahati put up a tough fight in the third quarter with Charmie scoring all the 10 points made by her team in this quarter. However, in the final quarter, a dejected Guwahati team could never find the net as all the action was happening in Kanpur’s side. Kanpur girls Aakansha and Chanchala helped their team extend the lead by scoring some very fine layups in the end.

The men’s team came down 58-40 to BHU in a tightly contested game. The match saw some exceptional basketball being played with both sides fighting for every single point. BHU seemed to dominate the game from the very beginning with Kanpur playing it highly defensive. The home team took fewer rebounds focusing instead on hindering BHU’s prospects at the basket. Kanpur’s Sudhanshu displayed exceptional athleticism but his accuracy at the basket took a hit. The first quarter closed at 10-8 with BHU securing a narrow lead. The second quarter was owned by BHU with them sealing 19 points against Kanpur’s 6. BHU’s Abhilash steered his team to victory scoring 3 baskets and converting 4 foul shots in this quarter. This quarter also saw 2 3 pointers by BHU boy Sunil. In the next quarter, Kanpur came back stronger reducing the BHU lead by 6 points. Kanpur’s Aditya was instrumental in this by scoring a couple of baskets with some clever manoeuvre with the ball. The final quarter saw BHU extending their lead by seizing the rebounds and paralyzing the home team.

Football

IIT Kanpur came into this match knowing that anything other than a loss will guarantee them a passage into the next stage but a victory was needed to secure a top spot considering Roorkee were huge favorites against Jodhpur but still Patna came with a defensive approach. The first chance resulted when Asad attacked from the left hand side of the pitch which narrowly missed the target, but other than that there were not many chances even though Patna were tucked back in their half for most of the time, frustrating Kanpur players.

The second half was more or less the same with one or two half chances which Kanpur players squandered. Kanpur had to endure a setback as Anush hurt his leg while chasing the ball. The match ended on the scoreline it started with, 0-0, with Patna supporters pleased by the valiant effort of their team even though they were knocked out whereas Kanpur finishing second in their pool behind Roorkee who remain the team to beat in this tournament.

Hockey

Today the home team continued to display amazing team efforts which helped them defeat BHU with the final score of 2-1. Kanpur’s captain Prabu Chandrasekhar, the hat-trick hero and the leading goal scorer of the tournament opened the score for Kanpur with an elegant flick in the nineteenth minute of the game as the strong Kanpur frontline with skilled players like Utkarsh Bajpai, Vivek Singh cleverly penetrated into BHU’s defence. The first half witnessed plenty of action as both teams looked to gain the lead. The skilful and strategic defender Lavish Arora ensured the scoreline after the first half stood at 1-0. Prabhu and his boys rallied strongly and earned the second goal of the game through a penalty corner in the forty second minute. The fourth quarter  saw a thrilling turn of events as Gaurav scored with a drag flick taking the score to 2-1 and made the match more interesting. BHU then attacked with all their might as they tried to equalise. What further added to the excitement was the last minute penalty corner which brought the spectators on their toes. But Kanpur finally emerged victorious.

Table Tennis

The women’s team of Bombay snatched the win from Kanpur after they fought back from one match down to claim two straight wins and emerge victorious. Mugdha won the first match but the letdown of the day came in the form of a poor show by the doubles’ team. Kanpur’s third player, Megha, offered token competition and was shrugged off by her competitor.

Controversy arose when the assistant referee awarded a point to Kanpur which was protested by the Bombay team and required the intervention of the chief referee.The point was finally added in Bombay’s favour.

Kanpur’s disappointing day continued as the men’s team lost to stalwarts Madras with a score of 3-1. The round, which carried finishing top of the pool at stake, started well for Kanpur when Mehul Singh recorded his third straight win in the tournament, defeating Raghav from Madras. Yesterday’s star performer, Nikhil Sharma was defeated by Venkatesh in the second match with a score of 3-1. Kanpur switched tactics today, opting for aggressive plays and smashes right at the start of a rally instead of the long rallies they played yesterday and the day before. However, the tactic backfired as it resulted in a net or an overshoot more often than not and this seemed to unnerve Nikhil. Arpit, freshman from Kanpur, playing his debut match in the tournament just managed to win the first set but then lost thrice consecutively to cede the round. Mehul was up against Venkatesh in the fourth match and apart from a lone streak of brilliance in the third set, was comprehensively defeated.

Volleyball

Both the women’s and men’s home team showed clear domination in their respective matches to secure the top position in their respective pools. The girls defeated the rather inexperienced looking team of Hyderabad by 3-0 in the morning, the evening hosted an easy match where the Kanpur boys won by 3-0 against Bhubaneshwar.
While the women’s team captain Tanvi served continuously for 10 times in the beginning of the set and played consistently well throughout the game, the lifter of the team Deeksha was the show-stopper who continuously amazed both the audience and the opponent team through her game. The team being the winner of Pool C will be facing the runner up team of Pool A, Madras in the quarterfinals scheduled tomorrow evening.
In the evening, Ritesh interestingly turned an otherwise simple match into an amazing one through his amazing smashes throughout the match. The team captain Pawan Kumar Meena, vice-captain Piyush and Amit also played well during the match. The team is the pool topper and will be playing against the runner up of Pool D, Kharagpur in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Weightlifting

In weightlifting, Kanpur didn’t make it to the top three spots in the 69-77 kg and got bronze in the 77 kg+ category. IIT Kanpur got overall gold in the weightlifting event.