CWG TT: Women win silver, men knocked out

NEW DELHI - The Indian women’s table tennis team won its maiden silver in the Commonwealth Games after losing to Singapore 0-3 in the final, while the defending champion men’s team suffered a shock 1-3 defeat at the hands of England in the semi-finals here Friday.

The women lost to reigning world champions Singapore in three straight games but played well throughout the tournament to produce their best ever show in the Games. The team defeated stronger teams like Australia and England enroute the final.

India bagged the bronze in the 2006 Melbourne Games in the women’s team event and came sixth in Manchester.

The Indian men, who won the gold four years ago, were outplayed by a young English team.

The day belonged to the women paddlers. The Indian women did not go down without a fight in the final against a team which boasted of three top 25 players in the world.

Mouma Das lost the first match against Tianwei Feng 5-11, 3-11, 11-9, 7-11 but managed to win a game against the world no. 3 player.

Shamini Kumaresan played exceedingly well in the tournament but could not do much in the match against world no. 5 Yuegu Wang and lost 7-11, 7-11, 5-11.

Poulomi Ghatak raised hopes by taking a 1-0 lead in the third match but could not sustain the high quality play and lost to Jiawei Li 12-10, 7-11, 9-11, 5-11.

India’s head coach Massimo Constantini expressed satisfaction at the performance of the women’s team.

“The girls played attacking table tennis and beat higher-ranked teams in the tournament. It is a good sign for the future,” Constantini told IANS.

The Indian men and second seed disappointed later in the day by losing against underdogs England.

The match was turned in the favour of the visitors when Anthony Amalraj lost to England number one Paul Drinkhall after having four match points in the decider and lost 8-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-7, 10-12.

Sharath Kamal won the first match against Liam Pitchford 11-8, 11-4, 11-8.

Subhajit Saha coming out of an injury could not make an impact and lost 4-11, 10-12, 8-11.

India was down 1-2 in the match after that and Sharath needed to win his reverse tie against Drinkhall to the keep the title hopes alive. But he failed to deliver and lost 8-11, 5-11, 12-10, 4-11 to give England a place in the finals.

The team now plays Nigeria for the bronze medal Saturday.

–Indo–Asian News Service