Army Public School's Taarushi trumps rival Shariva in close contest

Taarushi Yadav of Army public school during her inter- school match at CCI on Saturday. Pic/ Suresh Karkera

Taarushi Yadav of army Public school ( Colaba), the daughter of an army officer, displayed strong will power and fighting spirit to quell the challenge from Shariva Mandlik of Bombay scottish ( Mahim). Taarushi snatched a tense 15- 13 victory in a girl's U- 14 singles round- of- 32 match of the CCi- Mssa inter- school badminton tournament at the CCi Courts on saturday.

Both Taarushi and Shariva played aggressively and were involved in a grueling tussle that witnessed some exciting rallies. There was not much to separate the two as the scores ran close and the lead changed hands quite a few times till 12- all in the race to 15 points.

The energetic Taarushi managed to win the next two points, but shariva saved one match point before Taarushi clinched the winning point with a flick at the net to advance to the pre- quarters.

"It was a very tough match. I managed to stay focused towards the end and with some tactical play, won the last couple of points. The next rounds will be tougher, but I'm prepared to fight it out. Earlier this year I had won the girls' U- 13 title in the Manora badminton tournament at the North india association and that gave me a lot of confidence to do well here. another reason why I want to win is because this is my last term in Mumbai. We will be shifting to Kolkata as my father is being transferred," said Taarushi, who interestingly also played football for her U- 16 school team last season.

In other interesting matches, Riddhima Sonigra of Vibgyor High ( Goregaon) got the better of Cathedral & John Connon's ( Fort) Ishana Sharma 15- 12. Ananya Kolte of Bombay scottish ( Mahim) beat Tania Mazdiyasni of JB Vachha (Fort) 15-10.

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