The Olympics Sports team Abdul Rahim and Muhammad Sadiq Padela, Gold Coast Australia, Apr 8, 2018: India has become the first ever team to beat Singapore at a Commonwealth Games to become the Women’s Team Champion at Gold Coast 2018 (India Creates History).
The Indian team made up of Manika BATRA, Madhurika PATKAR & Mouma DAS have sensationally broken Singapore’s streak that dated back to 2002, which had resulted in the Singapore women’s team pocketing every women’s team gold medal on offer.
Given no chance of victory before the match, the Indian team has put together a performance that will put them in Indian sporting history books for life and captivated the massive live TV audience back in India.
The hero of the night was 22-year-old, world number 58 Manika BATRA. BATRA shocked world number four FENG Tianwei who had never lost a Commonwealth Games singles match 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7 in a gripping match to set the tone of the entire match.
YU Mengyu managed to put Singapore back on track defeating Madhurika PATKAR 13-11, 11-2, 11-6. PARTKAR then paired up with Mouma DAS to beat ZHOU Yihan and YU Mengyu 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7 to set up the stage perfectly for BATRA to crown the team with glory.
BATRA did just that, blowing ZHOU Yihan off the court 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 to clinch India’s first ever women’s Commonwealth Games medal!
After clinching the historic medal BATRA stated: “I was just thinking at 7-all that I had to win, I had to win the medal for India, I wanted to stand on the top step of the podium and have the Indian national anthem played.
I’ve practised a great deal with my coach to attack more from my backhand, the pimpled rubber but I think today the big improvement was my forehand, I think that really surprised Singapore. It’s the first time I’d ever played Feng Tianwei but previously when I played Zhou Yihan I lost.”
England beat Australia in another thrilling match 3-1 to win the bronze medal.
Tomorrow sees the Men’s Team semifinals between England & Nigeria and Singapore & India, followed by the medal matches. —- ITTF
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.