Commonwealth Games 2022 table tennis: Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan lead India into men’s team final
The Indian men’s table tennis team will play 2014 CWG champions Singapore for the gold medal on Tuesday.
Defending champions India kept the ball rolling with a 3-0 win over Nigeria in the men’s team table tennis event semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Monday.
India fielded the same line-up against Nigeria, the 2018 CWG finalists, from their win against Bangladesh in the last game.
India’s top-ranked singles player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran teamed up with Harmeet Desai for the first doubles fixture against Bode Abiodun and Olajide Omotayo at the National Exhibition Centre and won the match 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-7).
Sharath Kamal, who is playing his fifth CWG, then tamed the fiery world No. 15 Quadri Aruna 3-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 15-13) to give India a 2-0 lead.
Sharath Kamal, ranked 39th, edged past the highest-ranked player at the CWG 2022 in the first game courtesy of his solid defence. Quadri Aruna, however, used his power to mount a comeback in the second game.
Sharath Kamal had to toil hard for every point in the third game but the Indian warhorse regained the upper hand.
In a fiercely contested fourth game, Sharath Kamal despite trailing at one stage, refused to give up and eventually came out as a winner.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, ranked 35th, then denied any opening to world No. 112 Olajide Omotayo and got the job done tactically by winning 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-6,11-8).
In the final, India will face their Group 3 opponents and 2014 CWG champions Singapore on Tuesday. The Indian team had handed Singapore a 3-0 drubbing in the group stage earlier in the competition.
The men’s singles and doubles table tennis events at Birmingham 2022 will begin on Wednesday.