Paris Olympics: Manika-led India beat Romania 3-2 to enter quarterfinals of women's TT team event
Paris, Aug 5: Star player Manika Batra led from the front as India prevailed over higher-ranked Romania 3-2 in a thrilling tie and made a memorable entry into the quarterfinals of the women's table tennis team competition at the Paris Olympics here on Monday.
Leading 2-0, India saw Romania fight back to draw level at 2-2 but in the decider, Manika delivered for her side.
Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath started the proceedings with a 11-9 12-10 11-7 win over Adina Diaconu and Elizabeta Samara in a doubles match.
Manika made short work of higher-ranked Bernadette Szocs in a 11-5 11-7 11-7 victory as India took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the tie against their fourth-seeded opponents. India are seeded 11th in the competition.
In the second singles match however, things did not go in India's favour as Sreeja went down 2-3 (11-8 4-11 11-7 6-11 8-11) to European champion Samara after winning the first game.
Sreeja's defeat paved the way for a face-off between Archana and Bernadette and the latter won the first game 11-5, but the Indian bagged the second 11-8 to restore parity. However, Bernadette won the next two games 11-7 11-9 to clinch the match and send the tie to the decider.
Manika then blanked Adina 3-0 (11-5 11-9 11-9) to seal the tie in India's favour.
"The first match was very crucial. I think we pulled out a very good match. We share a very good bonding and we trust each other. We are really happy that we won this match. Let's focus on quarters and like today we will give our best in quarters," Sreeja said.
"Now we just prepare, we learn whatever mistakes we have done, we learn from this and just prepare for the next match."
India will be up against either the USA or Germany in the quarter-finals.
Japan, Poland, France and Thailand are also on the same side of the draw.
Last week, both Manika and Sreeja scripted table tennis history by becoming the first Indian players to reach the round of 16 in the individual event at the Olympics. The two, however, could not progress beyond that stage, losing to higher-ranked opponents.
Sreeja had lost 0-4 to world number one Yingsha Sun of China in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles.
"I was a little upset only for one day, but then again I had to give my best for my country and for all of them who are supporting us. So yeah, I think I just gave my best today.
"I was not thinking of winning or losing. Of course, we wanted to win, but yeah, at that time I was just giving my best for every point I was playing with Bernie and Adina.
"So I am happy with my performance, how I played and of course how we all played and we started really well with the doubles and that gave me confidence," Sreeja concluded.
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Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
