Sharath Kamal
Neha Aggarwal
Soumyajit Ghosh
The women team, too, took their appointed place in the
semifinals, finishing behind Singapore
in their group. Both the men and women paddlers will meet England in the semifinals tomorrow.
The men paddlers accounted for Northern
Ireland , Scotland
and Malaysia ,
in that order, all with 3-0 verdicts. With Sharath Kamal and Soumyajit Ghosh
expected to play their parts well, there were apprehensions about Shetty. But
the left-hander, who replaced Anthony Amalraj, exhibited himself really well to
come out with flying colours.
Shetty, though dropped a game against Niall Cameronin their
match against Scotland ,
resurrected well to beat 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3. Earlier, Sharath and Ghosh won
their respective matches against Sean Doherty and Gavin Rumgay to help India lead
2-0. Shetty, employing his forehand shots well, overcome a nervous start
before finally clinching it in India ’s
favour.
Against Malaysia ,
Harmeet Desai got his first match in the championships and he beat Foo Dunley
3-1 (11-7, 11-6, 5-11,11-5), Ghosh defeated Muhamad Ashraf 3-0 and Anthony
Amalraj downed Chee Kien Ee 3-1 (11-8, 14-12, 9-11, 11-5) despite his
indifferent form. India
was so confident that they rested Sharath Kamal and gave chance to Harmeet who
acquitted himself very well.
Though the Indian women began their Stage 2 quarterfinal
league with a thumping 3-0 win over Scotland
in the morning, the hosts went down to Singapore 1-3 in the afternoon. The
result against the top-ranked team was along the expected lines but what gave
the Indians confidence was the way Neha Aggarwal tackled world No. 91 Yihan
Zhou. The Delhi
girl won 11-6 12-10 7-11 11-6.
In the first game, Mouma Das gave a glimpse some fight back
against Singapore ’s
Mengyu Fu, ranked No. 27, to win it 11-7 with excellent forehand shots. In the
second too, the experienced veteran went ahead only to lose momentum and the
game 9-11. That was all she could do as the Singaporean took the next two 11-5,
11-6 to shut out the Indian’s challenge.
Madhurika Patkar did make a futile attempt against world No.
4 Feng Tianwei, but the London Olympics bronze medallist, despite losing a
game, put her team 2-0 up with 11-2, 11-13, 11-2, 11-5 triumph. The credit must
go to the Indian to give her opponent a good fight as the Singapore girl
had a sizeable lead even in the second game. But the Indian cashed in on the
chances that came her way to put it across her rival.
Enter Neha, the wind changed its direction and an upset was
very much in the air. Neha began on a rousing note winning the first two games
before letting her opponent take the next after a good fight. But the Delhi girl arrested any
further inroad by the Singaporean to win the next in quick time.
“Everything fell into place and I am confident of a good
performance in the matches ahead,” said Neha. “Mouma played an excellent game
against Feng. If she had won, maybe, we could have pressed for an upset against
Singapore ,”
she added.
Mouma returned to the table once again and tried to retrieve
the situation, taking on Feng. All that the Indian could do was to stretch Feng
to five games as the former went down 5-11 11-8 5-11 12-10 11-4.
Mouma admitted that pressure got to her after levelling the
score. “I was a bit under pressure and Feng was hitting well. Once she took off
nicely in the decider, I was unable to match her,” said the Railways
paddler.
However, the Indian girls made amends as they beat Wales 3-0 to finish second behind Singapore
in group E and seal their semifinal spot. Now the Indians will be run into England ,
who topped group F, in the last-four stage.
Results (Quarterfinal league): Men: Group ‘E’: Singapore bt Australia
3-0; England bt Wales 3-0; Singapore
bt England 3-0, Wales bt Australia
3-1; Singapore bt Wales 3-0; England
bt Australia
3-0.
Group ‘F’: India
beat Northern Ireland 3-0; Scotland bt Malaysia
3-1; India beat Scotland 3-0; Malaysia
bt Northern Ireland 3-0; India beat Malaysia
3-0; Scotland bt Northern Ireland
3-1.
Women: Group ‘E’: Singapore bt Wales 3-0; India beat
Scotland 3-0; Singapore beat India 3-1; Wales bt Scotland 3-0; Singapore bt
Scotland 3-0; India beat Wales 3-0.
Group ‘F’: England bt Australia 3-1; Malaysia bt Sri Lanka
3-0; England bt Malaysia 3-1; Australia bt Sri Lanka 3-0; England bt Sri Lanka
3-0; Malaysia bt Australia 3-0.
Semifinal line-ups:
Men: India
vs England , Singapore vs Scotland ; Women:
India vs England , Singapore
vs Malaysia .
A TTFI Press release
A TTFI Press release
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