Reigning National Masters’ Champion and former World Masters’ Champion, Mantu Murmu played captain’s innings for her West Bengal team against favourites Maharashtra team in the finals of Women’s 59+ team event at the IMPTTA-National Masters’ Table Tennis championship at the Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai.
Winning their first match with Mantu scoring 3-0 win over Ujwala Marathe and taking 1-0 lead, West Bengal lost their second match when Karavi Maity lost to Suhasini Bakre. With set scores levelled at 1-1, the doubles match proved to be very crucial. At this stage, Mantu partnering Karavi managed to win this match 3-2 against Suhasini & Ujwala.
In the fourth reverse singles match Suhasini fought back well against Mantu and even took the first two games. But, known for her patience, Mantu went on to take the next two games to level the set score at 2-2. It was anybody’s match in the fifth game. However, Mantu proved her supremacy by winning this decider on 11-9 to win the match and team title.
