Cuttack: Indian men defended their crown beating England while the women blanked Singapore for their maiden title at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships here Friday.
England tried to change the script but the Indian men brought in a twist to the tale through birthday boy Harmeet Desai to end the English hopes to lift the Host Association’s Cup.
With this win, the Indian men comprising Achanta Sharath Kamal & Co. extended their reign for the second successive time after annexing the title in the previous edition at Surat in 2015. The Indian men had won their first crown in Kuala Lumpur in 2004.
Desai, celebrating his 26th birthday, not only presented himself a wonderful gift but also brought India from the brink to a face-saving title victory.
Trailing 0-2 in the final, India needed Desai to give that spark which was lacking. And he did not disappoint with a fantastic win over David McBeath to pave the way for G Sathiyan and Sharath to complete the task in their reverse singles.
If Sharath was awful against Thomas Jarvis, who is No. 186 in the world, in the opening tie, Sathiyan was equally guilty of plotting his own downfall against Samuel Walker, ranked No.86.
And that too after taking a 2-0 lead. But credit must be given to the two English players, especially Jarvis who not only blocked superbly but had the experienced Sharath in a tangle with his accuracy.
Unable to counter him, Sharath threw in the towel earlier than one had expected him to. Sathiyan faced a determined Walker who inched his way slowly but surely to first draw level and up the ante in the decider, keeping a sizeable lead. But Sathiyan was able to break the shackles and twice levelled the score at 7-7, 8-8 before the Briton romped home winners to give a nice cushion (2-0).
Desai then defeated McBeath to provide the much-needed oxygen and India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Earlier, in the women’s segment, the Indian team comprising of Manika Batra & Co. completely outplayed title-favourites England to clinch the gold medal.
India were in a backseat early when Archana Kamath lost her opening set in the first game against Tin-Tin Ho 8-11. But the 19-year-old quickly got into her stride as she rallied to win 13-11 in the second set to make the scores level.
Thereafter, the 2019 senior national champion Archana won the next two sets with an identical 11-9 margin to give India a 1-0 win.
England however couldn’t come back from the opening game shock as Denise Payet and Emily Barton failed to put up a fight as they lost against Manika (6-11, 4-11, 3-11) and Madhurika Patkar (9-11, 7-11, 6-11) respectively to settle for silver.