Silver for paddlers

 Indian men suffered a 0-3 thrashing at the hands of a much superior Singapore as the hosts settled for a silver medal in the team event at the 19th Commonwealth table tennis championships here on Wednesday.

 
The Indian paddlers displayed flashes of brilliance to create some excitement among the home supporters at the Thyagaraj Stadium here but the difference in class between the two teams proved decisive at the end in the summit clash.

With the home team trailing 0-2, young paddler Sanil Shetty (ranked 332nd) lost to Singapore’s Liang Ma in an excruciatingly close battle that extended the full distance of five sets.

“I should have finished the match in the fourth game as I was leading 4-0. From there on he (Ma) played better. Also, I committed lot errors in the final game,” Shetty said.
Singapore had beaten India in the finals of the 2007 and 2009 edition of the championships as well. 

Earlier, Soumyajit Ghosh and Achantha Sharath Kamal lost their respective matches without giving much of a fight.

India started with Ghosh (187) who seemed over-aggressive at the start of his match against Jian Zhan.

His strategy paid dividends initially and was on the verge of giving the hosts a perfect start with scoreline reading 10-6.