Two Semi Finals... One a fairly ding dong battle. The other almost a bridge lesson. That has been the story of today's matches. But, before we take you to a quick recap of the day's events, let us take a look at some photographs from the venue. We have actually managed to click some of the participants 'unmasked' for all of you to identify
To start with, today's proceedings were displayed on BBO in real time. A major joy to watch results as they happen live instead of kibitzing with a lag which has become the norm for online tournaments; irrespective of the platform which they are conducted on. It was good to see Pramod Samant back in action. This is the first event being broadcast on BBO after Delhi Gymkhana Club back in March 2019!
As we mentioned, at the start, the two semi finals could not have been more different in character. The first one, between Dhampur Sugar Mills and Navjoti began with a thumping session for the round robin toppers when they pulled out a thumping 80 imp lead. They went on adding small dibs and dobs to end the day 116.5 imps ahead. It will take something truly special for Team Navjoti to eke out a victory in just 16 boards.
Here we see Ashok Goel, for once not captaining his team along with an 'unmasked' Venky playing against AK Sinha and S. Bandhopadhyay.
The other semi final saw Bangur Cement pull out a 23 imp lead in the first session. However, Hemant Jalan's IV pulled back 19 of them in the second session and added another 20 in the last to lead by 16.50 VPs. This match should be exciting tomorrow.
In this picture alongside we can also see a couple of stalwarts, Debasis Roy and Raju Tolani who are the non playing captains of Bangur Cement and Dhampur Sugar Mills respectively.
All photographs are courtesy Srini who has been sharing photographs for these bulletins.
We can only hope for a dramatic battle tomorrow between Bangur Cements and Hemant Jalan's IV. While we would hope for a similar battle in the other match, it does seem to be a bit of an uphill task, doesn't it?
We hope to have another update for you tomorrow evening.