Title - India Blues takes on Formidables in final

Defending champion Railways ‘A’ was shocked by India Blues (Mumbai) by 60 IMPs in the semifinals of the Ruia Gold Cup of the 54th winter National bridge championship at the Gitanjali Stadium here on Thursday.In the other semifinals, Delhi’s Formidables subdued Poddar Developer (Mumbai) 102-82 after a tough fight.Blues, represented by V.M. Lal, J.M. Shah, Himani Khandelwal, Subhas Gupta, Rajiv Khandelwal and Swarnendu, put up a great show. Despite trailing in the first session, the team overtook its rival, scoring 31 against Railways’ 13 in the second.Blues outplayed Railways in the third session, winning it 66-14. Blues marched into the final with a victory margin of 146-86.In the pairs event, the duo of A. Sadhukhan and Ayan Chatterjee, was ahead with 156 points.It was followed by Animesh Raj-N.K. Gupta (127), A.K. Mukherjee-S. Dutta (124), Uday Ghosal-Moloy Mondal (123) and R. Pralhad-R. Krishnan (118).The Holkar Pairs event got off on Thursday and after the first elimination round, 110 pairs out of the 116 qualified for the second session.