Indian men team which won silver medal in Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in New Delhi on May 8, 2013
The only hiccup, however, was their third player Ma Liang
who was taken to the full distance by India ’s Sanil Shetty. But for this
minor aberration the Asian powerhouse yet again proved, if any proof was
needed, how the rest of the Commonwealth nations in fray lagged far behind
them—in pace, fitness and the mental ability to come out of any tricky
situation.
One example of that was Ma Liang’s game against Sanil
Shetty. The left-handed Indian, who had his excellent moments in the match
against an edgy Ma, looked to coast along nicely in the decider with a 7-4
lead. Then the forehand shots, his strong points, deserted him and he was
forced into errors at the net. Seizing the opportunity, the world No. 180
Singaporean took the next seven points to seal the fate of India . Sanil
lost 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11.
Even before Ma played a gripping match, his compatriot Zhan
Jian showed glimpses of Singaporean grit in large measure in the first
game. Trailing 6-10 in the first match against Soumyajit Ghosh, the
highest world ranked player here at 26, first equalled the score at 10-10
before notching up 13-11 win. That set the ball rolling for the top-ranked team
in the championships as Zhan completed his job clinically to win 13-11, 11-8,
11-3.
Achanta Sharath Kamal was completely off colour against a
superior Li Hu as the 56th ranked player pounded the Indian with blistering forehands.
Even his backhand topspin serves brooked little challenge from the Indian as Li
won 3-0 in double quick time. Only in the third game did Sharath give his
opponent some fight but his resistance was too little and too late as Li
swiftly wound up his business at the table with a fast-paced game. Sharath did admit as much after the match.
“It was a bad result for us. But they were far superior,
very sharp and equally well focused,” he said. Men’s coach Kamalesh
Mehta, while praising the champions’ efforts, admitted that our paddlers needed
to do a lot of work to measure up the top Tt playing nations.
“We have to traverse a long distance. They were not only
sharp, but also very much focused. I could only admire their mental aptitude
because at no stage was any of their players looked hassled when the chips were
down. They could always raise their game and we must learn from them,” he said.
As for the English women, there were occasions when both
Joanna Parker and Kelly Sibley made brilliant efforts to stage comebacks. They
managed to take a game each off their opponents, but Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu
shut out whatever little challenge came from the two English women. Their third
English player, Ho Tin-Tin, just went through the formality lost to in straight
games.
Results (team finals): Men: Singapore beat India 3-0
(Zhan Jian bt Soumyajit Ghosh 13-11, 11-8, 11-3; Li Hu bt A. Sharath Kamal
11-4, 11-4, 11-9; Ma Liang bt Sanil Shetty 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Women: Singapore beat England 3-0 (Feng Tianwei bt Joanna
Parker 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7; Yu Mengyu bt Kelly Sibley 14-12, 16-14,
9-11, 11-9; Zhou Yihan bt Ho Tin-Tin 11-4, 12-10, 11-8).
A TTFI Press release
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