By B Shrikant
Birmingham, July 29 (Ajit Weekly News) Led by Achinta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, India expectedly defeated Barbados 3-0 in their opening match in the Men’s Team section of Commonwealth Games table tennis competitions at Hall 3 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) at Solihull here on Friday.
India’s top singles players Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal won their matches 3-0 in the best-of-five contest. Sathiyan had earlier paired up with Harmeet Desai to win the doubles match to give India a winning start.
The make-shift pair of Sathiyan and Harmeet outgunned Kevin Farley and Tyrese Knight 11-9, 11-9, and 11-4 in straight games. Though the first two games looked close, the Indians were never in danger of losing a game though their opponents put up a good fight. The Indians won eight of the 11 points in the first game on serve, claiming a total 18 out of the overall 33 points they won the match on service.
The 40-year-old Sharath Kamal then stepped to the table and made short work of Ramon Maxwell. beating him 3-0 (11-5, 11-3, 11-3) to make it 2-0 for India.
Sathiyan then sealed victory for India by beating Tyrese Knight 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-5) to seal the comfortable victory for the defending champions.
India are in Group 3 along with Singapore, Northern Ireland and Barbados in the 16-team competition in which teams have been divided in four groups. India need to beat a stronger opponent in Singapore in their group so as to avoid running into a stronger opponent in the knockout stages.
–Ajit Weekly News
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