CWG 2022: India's men Table Tennis team beat Singapore to win country's 5th gold

India Men's Table Tennis defeated Singapore in the group team final to win gold at the CWG Birmingham

Source: Twitter

India Men's Table Tennis wrote their name in the history books winning gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 (CWG) in Birmingham on Tuesday (August 2). Facing Singapore in the Men's team final, duo of Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran gave India a 1-0 lead beating Yong Izaac Quek and Yew En Koen Pang with straight 3-0 game victory. Later on, the pressure was back on India as Sharath Kamal Achanta lost to Zhe Yu Clarence 3-1 in the best of five clash to level things for Singapore 1-1.

Sathiyan came up for India in the third matchup against Yew En Koen Pang and defeated the Singapore player 3-1 in best of five to get India the lead back to 2-1. It didn't go right down to the wire as H. Desai defeated Z. Chew guiding the India Men's Table Tennis team to the gold medal beating him 3-0 in best of five. The fifth and final match was between Y.I Quek and India's S. Achanta but team India won the five-match final in the first four games winning 3-1. (Follow LIVE CWG action HERE)

And its a GOLD medal 
India win Gold medal in Table Tennis Men's Team event after beating Singapore 3-1 in Final.
Sathiyan & Harmeet won their Singles matches & Doubles match.
 Its 2nd consecutive CWG Gold medal for India in Men's Team event. #CWG2022 #CWG2022India pic.twitter.com/Kn70r6VuUH — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) August 2, 2022

However, it was not the same scene for the Women's Table Tennis team at the Commonwealth Games 2022 Birmingham. Manika Batra's team sufferred from another controversy in the middle of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 Birmingham campaign. India were thrashed by Malaysia, a side who's every player of the team do not even feature in the world rankings. India looked good until they reached the quarterfinals but the defending champions faced a horror defeat against the Malaysian players. (Know full story HERE)

Sharath Kamal for India in CWG

Men's Singles, CWG 2006 (GOLD)

Men's Team, CWG 2006 (GOLD)

Men's Doubles, CWG 2010 (GOLD)

Men's Team, CWG 2018 (GOLD)

Men's Team, CWG 2022 (GOLD)

The stand-out performance came from India's third player, Harmeet. Sharath had struggled to contain Clarence but Harmeet went on the offensive against the left-hander and ensured that he did not get room to go for his powerful forehand winners. Harmeet's backhand was also on fire as he won majority of the long rallies.

In the first singles, Sharath went down 7-11, 14-12, 3-11,9-11 against Clarence. Whenever, the Indian placed the ball deep on Clarence's forehand, the return was a winner.
Two net chords helped Sharath in the second game but Clarence comfortably won the next two.

India had beaten a stronger opponent in Nigeria on Monday with Sharath stunning world number 15 Aruna Quadri. But his loss against a much lower ranked opponent on Tuesday showed rankings did not matter much in a multi sporting event.

India had won the team gold for the first in Melbourne 2006 before repeating the feat in Gold Coast four years ago. It was also Sharath's 10th medal in the Games history and he is set to add more with singles and doubles events to follow. (With PTI inputs)