E-Paper
CWG 2022: India shuttlers make it to knockouts, women paddlers steamroll Guyana
The Indian women's table tennis team continued its winning streak as it outclassed Guyana 3-0 in a Group 2, while shuttlers dished out another splendid show to take an unassailable 3-0 lead over a hapless Sri Lanka.
The Indian women's table tennis team, led by Manika Batra, continued its winning streak as it outclassed Guyana 3-0 in a Group 2 match of the Commonwealth Games here on Saturday. The women's team, defending the title it had won at Gold Coast four years ago, enjoyed a winning start to its campaign on Friday after crushing South Africa and Fiji by an identical 3-0 margin.
On the second competition day, the first to turn up was the pair of Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison, which steamrolled Natalie Cummings and Chealsea Edghill 11-5 11-7 11-7 to put India 1-0 ahead. Then, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Manika, who became the first Indian table tennis player to win the gold in the women's singles in the last edition, decimated Thuraia Thomas in straight games 11-1 11-3 11-3. In another woman's singles match, Reeth fought hard to register an 11-7 14-12 13-11 win against Chealsea Edghill, who put up a spirited show. Reeth's win ensured that India won the tie convincingly.
Soon after, Indian shuttlers dished out another splendid show to take an unassailable 3-0 lead over a hapless Sri Lanka in their second group A match of the mixed team competition. A day after blanking Pakistan 5-0, India notched up another convincing win to go to the top of group A and qualify for the quarterfinals with still one match to go in the league stage.
Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were back together for the mixed doubles match and the duo looked a little rusty initially before getting past Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa 21-14 21-9 to put India 1-0 ahead. World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen, who is playing his first match after recovering from a shoulder injury, prevailed 21-18 21-5 over veteran Niluka Karunatne, who has competed at the Olympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
Akarshi Kashyap, who had made it to the team after topping the selection trials in April, went past Suhasni Vidanage 21-3 21-9 to hand India a 3-0 lead. India expectedly were by far the better team on display as they completed dominated the proceedings at at Arena Birmingham. India will play the men's doubles and women's doubles to complete the five-match rubber. The Indian team will face Australia in the final league group match later in the day.
