By Bharat Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi: The Indian women’s table tennis team defeated Ghana to reach the quarterfinals and the men’s team scored yet another comfortable victory over Guyana in their group tie of the Commonwealth Games competition here Tuesday.
After their shocking loss against New Zealand Monday, the Indian women had to win their last group game against Ghana to qualify for the last eight. And they did that with a
3-0 victory over the African nation at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
Poulomi Ghatak was back in action and defeated Pokua Beatrice Gyasi 11-3, 11-3, 11-2 in the first singles.
Mouma Das beat Akosua Ketu 11-6, 11-9, 11-6 while third player Mamata Prabhu took just eight minutes to beat Efua Ofori Agyei-Owusu 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 to wrap up the match for India.
The women finished second in the group after New Zealand and will now face last edition’s silver medallist Australia for a spot in the semi-finals.
The team management heaved a sigh of relief when the quarterfinal draw was decided in the evening as they were fearing a clash with the world champions Singapore, after finishing second best in their group.
“We are happy that we face Australia and not Singapore. It would have meant curtains for us in that case. We have beaten the Aussies in the past so we are confident of a good show Wednesday,” coach Bhawani Mukherjee told IANS.
Later in the day, the men put up a flawless performance. Star player Sharath Kamal played his first match of the tournament and defeated Christopher Franklin 11-5, 11-1, 11-6.
Amalraj Anthony beat Birki Idi Lewis 11-2, 11-8, 11-8.
Defender Abhishek Ravichandran won against Paul Anthony David 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 to win the match for India.
The fans were present inside the stadium in huge numbers, cheering the home team even while they were having it easy.