Indian men overcome Nigeria, reach final in TT

Melbourne, Mar 19 (UNI) Indian paddlers assured themselves at least a silver medal as they up staged Nigeria 3-2 in a nerve-wracking tie to storm into the final of the Men's Table Tennis team competition of the Commonwealth Games here today.

In a tie in which fortunes fluctuated with every match, both the teams exchanged lead till the fifth match which went in India's favour, along with the tie.

Nigeria started off with an easy win when their star player Segun Toriola overwhelmed Soumyadeep Roy in straigth sets 12-10, 11-6, 11-8. The Nigerian played attacking game and never allowed his short-statured rival to settle down. His top spin had Roy in all sort of troubles as he caved in without much fight.

It was then left to top ranked India Achanta Sharath Kamal to draw parity but not before he was given a fright by Kazeem Nasiru.

Kamal lost the first game but then cameback strongly to outplay his rival in the next three games to make it 3-1. Kamal won 7-11, 13-11, 11-5, 13-11.

Shubhajit Saha then put India ahead as he sniffed out a determined resistance of Monday Merotohun in the long drawn third match fought over five games.

Both the players exchanged lead till the fourth game and in the decider, Shubhajit put the issue beyond doubt as he clinched the match with a stunning return. The Indian won 5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8 to give India 2-1 lead.

But the Nigerians were in no mood to give up and in the fourth match, Segun Toriola recorded his second win as he defeated Achanta Sharath Kamal in easy three games. Kamal seemed to have resigned to defeat even before the start of the game and lost 8-11, 4-11, 9-11.

Soumyadeep Roy, however, founds his touch in time and made amends for his earlier loss. The diminutive PSPB player made short work of Kazeem Nasiru 15-12, 11-7, 11-8 and assured India atleast of a silver medal.

India will compete with the winner of the tie between Singapore and Wales in the final of the event tomorrow.

However, the Indian women paddlers lost their semifinal tie to Singapore, losing all three matches.

In the first match, Nandita Saha proved no match at all for Yan xu and went down in straight games 6-11, 4-11, 3-11.

Mouma Das too could do little and was handed a 5-11, 7-11, 7-11 defeat by Xue Ling Zhang while Poulomi Ghatak delayed the inevitable with a semblance of fight before going down 3-11, 11-9, 4-11, 7-11 to Wei Jei.

UNI HSB AY BST1505