Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships: Indian Paddlers strike it rich

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Cuttack: Hosts India made a bright start to their campaign at the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, topping their groups to qualify for the Super Eight stage in both men’s and women’s team events here Wednesday.

The domination of Indian paddlers was such that they lost just two games — one by Achanta Sharath Kamal against Singapore’s Zheyu Clarence Chew in the men’s event and another by Ayhika Mukherjee against Chamathsara Fernando of Sri Lanka in the women’s category.

The team management kept faith in the threesome of Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai, who did their job pretty well to first beat Scotland 3-0 and then follow it up with a similar verdict against Singapore.

In the women’s event, India tried out their bench strength with different combinations in the two group matches.

Manika Batra and Ayhika Mukherjee, who played against Sri Lanka posting a 3-0 triumph in the company of Archana Kamath, were rested for the match against South Africa.

Instead, Madurika Patkar and Sutirtha Mukherjee were tried out with Archana and they didn’t disappoint, posting yet another 3-0 victory over South Africa.

The Singaporeans have brought a young women’s team here, while England, just with experienced Samuel Walker in their ranks, is the team to beat as they are likely to meet Indian men in the knockout stage.

In the women section, Malaysia stunned Australia, the group C topper, 3-1 in another match.

In a latest development, Uganda and Guyana have got their respective government’s nod and they would be sending their teams for participation in individual events.

According to a communication to Table Tennis Federation of India from the two federations, Uganda will be sending a five-member team while three from Guyana will compete in singles and doubles events, which gets underway from July 19 after the team finals.

Results (Team championships/Preliminary):

Women:

Group A: Singapore beat Scotland 3-0; Singapore beat Wales 3-0.

Group B: India beat Sri Lanka 3-0 (Manika Batra beat Bimandi Bandara 11-5 11-4 11-5; Archana Kamath beat Ishara Madurangi 11-5 11-5 12-10; Ayhika Mukherjee beat Chamathsara Fernando 11-3 11-3 8-11 11-4); India beat South Africa 3-0 (Archana Kamath beat Danisha Patel 11-6 11-2 11-2; Madhurika Patkar beat Palesa Mtshoelibe 11-2 11-5 11-3; Sutirtha Mukherjee beat Simeen Mookrey 11-1 11-4 11-4).

Group C: Australia beat Cyprus 3-0; Malaysia beat Australia 3-1.

Group D: Nigeria beat Bangladesh 3-0; England beat Nigeria 3-1.

Men:

Group A: England beat Cyprus 3-0; England beat Sri Lanka 3-0.

Group B: India beat Scotland 3-0 (G Sathiyan beat Niall Cameron 11-4 11-7 11-8; Achanta Sharath Kamal beatt Colin Dalgleish 11-2 11-6 11-9; Harmeet Desai beat Dylan Curry 11-2 11-6 11-1); India beat Singapore 3-0 (G Sathiyan beat Yu En Koen Pang

11-7 11-9 11-8; Achanta Sharath Kamal beat Zheyu Clarence Chew 8-11 11-5 11-4

11-9; Harmeet Desai beat Shao Han Josh 11-4 11-7 11-6).

Group C: Nigeria beat Bangladesh 3-0.

Group D: Australia beat Wales 3-0; Australia beat South Africa 3-0.