JOIN USIndia’s men bowed out of the World Team Table Tennis Championships after they were blanked out by Egypt 0-3 in Stage 2 of the second division here on Friday.
This would mean that the men’s team, which had finished 27th in the last worlds two years ago in Germany, will end up in the 32-36 bracket this time.
Indeed, this was a climb down for a team that was expected to do better here.
Nevertheless, one must give credit to the Egyptians for the way they played here, first overcoming a stiff resistance from Achanta Sharath Kamal and then taming both Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai, in that order for a 3-0 score.
Sharath, beginning on a losing note, caught up with his rival Omar Assar nicely to lead 2-1 at the end of the third game. But the Indian appeared in some sort of trouble against Assar as the Egyptian ran up a good lead to put his opponent on mat.
Having levelled the score, Assar went all out against Sharath in the deciding game, clinched it earlier than one had anticipated to win 11-8, 5-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6.
Ghosh lost 11-9, 9-11, 13-11, 11-5 to El-Sayed Lashin while Harmeet Desai played his usual attacking game but couldn’t do much against Saleh Ahmed who beat the Indian 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7.