Mumbai: Shree Cement team of Kolkata lifted the Rs five-lakh prize money Tolani Grand Prix Team of Four Bridge tournament here last night by upsetting their fancied rivals Formidables of Delhi by 31 International Match Points.

The winning quintet, comprising Manas Mukherjee, Rana Roy, Subrata Saha, Bivas Todi and Subir Majumder defeated their opposing team made up of Kiran Nadar, B Satyanarayana, Rajesh Dalal, Subhash Gupta, KR Venkatraman and Sunit Chokshi 155-124 to win Rs 1.5 lakh.

The runners-up received Rs one lakh. The losers had the edge in the first and second segments in the 64-board final. But in the final segment when the winners led 113-99, a slam bid by the losers went down giving Shree Cement a 42-25 score to boost their victory margin.

The win also gave the champions a berth in the Bridge Federation of India's selection trials to choose the national team for next year's Bridge Olympiad in Beijing.

The duo of R Venkatesh and R Krishnan won the pairs event with a total of 555.13 points beating to second place Bengal's A N Banerjee and Sumit Mukherjee (539.80), while another Bengal pair S N Dey Sarkar and P Bardhan (533.76) ended up third.

Source : PTI