Defending champions Indian men’s team today crashed out of the Commonwealth Games’ table tennis competition after going down 1-3 to England in semifinal at the Yamuna Sports Complex here.
Nothing went right for the Indian paddlers, including Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, in the final-four clash as the British team foiled every comeback bid by the hosts.
India, however, started in the encounter on a winning note after Sharath thrashed Liam Pitchford 3-0 in the opening tie in front of a cheerful crowd.
But then A. Amalraj squandered an early lead and went down fighting to Paul Drinkhall 2-3 as England drew parity, before Andrew Baggaley swelled the lead by spanking an off-colour Subhajit Saha 0-3.
Now India’s hopes were on world number 40, Sharath but the Chennai paddler was today not in his best and committed several unforced errors in the fourth tie.
Sharath lost 1-3 to Drinkhall and with the defeat, Indian men’s hope of making to the final of the team event in the Delhi Games went up in smoke.
Both Sharath and India’s foreign coach Massimo Constantini agreed that England have got the ticket to the summit-clash as a deserving candidate and said umpire’s two fault-calls, which came in crucial junctures in the second tie, later proved crucial.
“England really played well. Referee called two faults in 0-5 and 10-10 situations during Amalraj-Drinkhall match, which later proved crucial,” Sharath said after the game.
“And after Amalraj lost the match, I was probably not that much confident in the fourth tie,” Sharath added.
“Now we have to start from the scratch again,” Constantini told reporters.
India now play Nigeria for the bronze.
Meanwhile, in the summit-stage, England will take on Singapore, who thrashed Nigeria 3-0 in the other semifinal earlier today.
