TEAM Mohota did the city proud by clinching their maiden 67th Ashok Ruia Gold Trophy during the Winter National Bridge Championships in Kolkata. Team Mohota was led by Anurag Mohota which also had Basant Mohota, both from Nagpur, Biswajit Poddar and Shambhu Nath Ghosh (both from Kolkata). In the final, the team beat Team Hemant Jalan to wrest the title by 21.9 IMPs. The final looked a one-sided affair in favour of Mohota in the first three segments with a comfortable lead of 60 IMPs. But team Hemant Jalan (Ashis Malhotra,

 

Hemant K Jalan, Subhash Gupta, Sandeep Thakral, Vikrant Mehta) had other plans as they came back roaring in the first six boards of the 4th and final segment cutting the lead from 60 IMPs to 20 IMPs with 10 boards to go. However, Team Mohota hung in there and did not let their early advantage slip away and won the game by 21.9 IMPs. Earlier, they dominated the qualifications, staying in top four throughout the eight rounds and finished at second spot. Their only loss in the whole tournament was against Formidables in round six of the qualification. In the quarter-finals Team Mohota defeated Third Eye by 42 IMPs.

 

In the semis, they shocked defending champions and eight-time finalists Indian Railways ‘A’ team. Having beaten Railways in round 1 of qualification, Team Mohota put up a stupendous performance and beat them by a margin of 52 IMPs. In the other semi-finals, Team Hemant Jalan stunned table toppers Formidables.