After 3 days, the Indian Seniors and Mixed teams appear to be pretty well placed to qualify for the knock outs. The Indian Ladies team is on the threshold and will have to turn in a set of seriously good performances to seal their berth. The Open team, although ranked 12th, is only within 4 VPs of the 8th placed country, so it is not unrealistic to say that they have a chance to qualify too.
As I commence writing the report for day 3, there is a sense of being overwhelmed with the enormity of the task. As the weekend approaches, it is likely to grow far tougher. I request you, kind readers, to bear with all the errors that I have made and may make going forward
So, let me start by issuing a corrigendum for some of the mistakes of the previous two days. While all attempts will be made to prevent a recurrence of such errors, let me apologize in advance should any happen
Corrigendum
On day 1, I had reported that Bindiya was unable to make a 6♠ contract. The declarer for that board was her partner TV Ramani who wrote to me saying "I was the declarer in 6♠ against South Africa and went 1 off on a misguess /misplay and not.bindiya Kohli who rightly put me to an excellent 6♠ and went 1 off as I tried for a restricted choice of ♠Q dropping on ♠K and ran into a ♣ ruff on the ♠ finesse losing to the ♠QJ doubleton
On Board 22 in the match with Italy, Sandeep and Jaggy decided to double 6♦ for -2 taking 300 (not sacrifice and giving 300).
I had mentioned that the Indian ladies had received a penalty of 3 VPs. It wasn't the Indian ladies who had been penalized, it was their opponents, Chile, who had been penalized for mobile phone ringing.
I had mentioned the Indian mixed team had received a penalty of 3 VPs in their match against England. They had received a penalty of 3.5 VPs. 3 VPs was due to Kiran Nadar's mobile phone ringing. Kiran - Satya were penalized 0.5 VP for slow play as well.
Acknowledgements
A number of people at the venue have been sending me photographs. A special mention must be made of Simon Stocken who has shared close to 50 photographs with me. I will attempt to share a few with you
I did start out trying to cover matches in detail but, at nearly 12 noon, I was nowhere near half complete. So I will attempt as best possible.
As mentioned yesterday, we would welcome reports of hands, or detailed matches from anybody. Will try and post them in the day's coverage. Photographs from the venue would be really welcome.
OpenWomensSeniorsMixed
Binod with Fernando Lema
The first match against Finland saw India notch up a 29 imp win (16.58 - 3.42). India scored 3 big boards and conceded only one in comparison to notch up this healthy victory.
India would have to be disappointed with the result of their match against Korea which they drew 10-10
In their last match for the day, India played Australia, a match they won by 11 imps (13.04-6.96)
At the end of the day, India was in 12th place (with 8 to qualify). Today, they will be playing Australia, Switzerland and Turkiye.
India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.
The Indian ladies had a bad day today, winning just one of their four matches and losing two out of three rather badly.
They were unable to open their score against Turkiye losing the match 0-33 (2.14-17.86). While the result looks really horrible, this kind of score happens when you lose two large boards.
Their match against Japan was much closer. However, they seem to have lost in the small exchanges for a final score of 8.62-11.38, a 4 imp difference.
They registered their only win of the day against South Africa, which seems to have been decided on one big board where their opponents bid a non existent slam. The rest of the match was split evenly.
They lost their final match against England as a result of Puja and Asha failing to cash two aces in a doubled slam (6♦x ) on Board 4. In the other room, Bharati and Alka correctly played in 5♦
We were wondering about the penalty in the round against Chile. As it happened, the penalty was levied on Chile rather than India. It just meant that India's performance in that round was worse than I thought it was originally.
At the end of the day, they are still lying in 16th position.
Today, they will be playing Canada, Italy, New Zealand and Germany. India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.
The Indian Seniors Team with Hemant Lall
The India Seniors had a much better day yesterday.
They lost their first outing against France largely due to their inability to handle the 1NT opening on Board 13. Though one has to wonder why this happened as this is the kind of 1NT that Badal or Bardhan would routinely open. They lost the match by 8 imps. (7.39-8.61).
In their second match they played New Zealand whom they hammered by 42 imps (19.02 - 0.98). This was their 4th score of 19 VPs +.
In their last round against top ranked USA, Badal Das and Pranab Bardhan inexplicable misdefended a grand slam on the last board to concede 16 imps and convert a defeat into a rout of 23 imps (3.82 - 16.18)
At the end of the day, India was lying in 4th place.
Today, they will be playing Australia, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.
TV Ramani and Bindiya Kohli with Zia Mahmood
The mixed team had a really good day today.
They started their campaign today with a close 1 imp (10.39 - 9.61) victory against Turkiye.
They got hammered by 43 imps (0.45 - 19.55) in their second match against France. Two boards account for 24 of those imps. In Board 26, France bid 7♦ in the open room, whereas Ramani and Bindiya could only reach 6♦. In Board 30, Ramani and Bindiya could not cash 5 tricks against 3NT. Bindiya led her 2nd best ♥6 and Ramani could not read the situation properly perhaps.
After this though, India really upped their game to beat Denmark (18.97 - 1.03), Argentina (16.18 - 3.82), and Canada (15.97 - 4.03) to end the day in 8th place.
Indeed, were it not for the 3 VP penalty levied on Kiran Nadar because her phone rang, they would have been in 6th place.
Today, they play Norway, Brazil, Spain, Japan and Australia.
India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.