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CHENNAI: After a high in the morning sessions it turned to a low for Indians in the Bermuda Bowl competition in the day’s final round, the 12th overall, with a heavy loss to Sweden (18-64 IMPs) pushing them out of the top eight to 10th place on Wednesday in the HCL 42nd World Bridge Championship here.
India had started well and even led 18-5 after six of the 16 boards but thereafter consistency went astray. Gopinath Manna and Subir Majumder played in the open while Rana Roy and Amarnath Banerjee were in the closed room. Indecisiveness took over to curb the Indians where the Swedes handled the situation steadily. The end result was that Sweden, aiming to make a mark, overtook India after registering a 64-18 VPs win to reach the 6th place.
The seniors in the d’Órsi trophy also fumbled after leading against Indonesia to finish 21-32 down in IMPs but they remained in the top eight (in sixth place). As for the ladies in the Venice Cup story of defeat continued, falling to China 16-54 IMPs.
In fact, the 12th round proved a tumble for a quite a few countries, a fair indication that the competition was tightening as the knock out phase neared. The biggest gainers were the USA teams while France fell from top position to fifth after two successive defeats.
The story however was much different earlier. India’s stock rose in the 11th round, the day’s second of the Bermuda bowl competition, when the team beat the reigning leader France 34-30 IMPs . It was close and Indians had their share of problems (Amarnath Banerjee and Rana Roy in the open and Sumit Mukherjee / Debabrata Majumdar in the closed) through poor hands and misjudgements.
But things evened out well and despite some late surges by the French, India stuck to a winning path. The win was crucial for India to hold onto eighth spot. Earlier in the day, India accounted for Argentina 38-27 IMPs.
The seniors (M. Sunil/R. Krishnan in the open and K.R. Venkataraman and Ashok Kumar Goel in the closed) in the d’Órsi trophy, made the most of a weak opponent in Guadeloupe to win 36-14 IMPs to gain some valuable VPs and help the country keep 6th place in the rankings.
Besides, it helped the Indians to brush aside the loss to number two team Australia (19-30) in the day’s first round. An early double-digit swing in IMPs in Australia’s favour put the Indians in the shade in that match.
In the Venice Cup for women, bottom-ranked India’s despair continued with two big defeats, first to Poland 52-5 and then to France 98-11, one of the biggest margins in the competition.
Rankings: Bermuda Bowl: 1. Bulgaria (156,33 VPs), 2. USA 1 (155.43), 3.China (150.96); Venice Cup: 1. USA 2 (186.23); 2. USA 1 (170.24), 3.Denmark ( 167.04); d Órsi trophy: 1. Australia (163.86); 2. USA 1 (160.90); 3. Austria (158.72)
Thursday’s matches for India: Bermuda Bowl: to play Australia, Brazil and Singapore; Venice Cup: to play Italy, South Africa and Egypt; D Orsi trophy: to play Poland, Bulgaria and Egypt.
