Indian men beat Nigeria, clinch bronze in TT

Shrugging off the disappointment of a 1-3 semi-final loss to England, Indian men's team spanked Nigeria 3-0 in third place play-off to clinch the bronze in the Commonwealth Games' table tennis competition.

It was an easy win for the Indians, who were off-colour in the final-four clash yesterday and had failed to match their opponents in every department of the game.

On Saturday, Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal gave the hosts a winning start, beating Akinade A Quadri 3-0 and then A Amalraj eased past Monday Merotohun with an identical scoreline at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

In the third tie, Abishek Ravichandran lost the first set 14-16 to Seun Ajetunmobi, but soon found his touch and clinched three sets back to back (11-6, 11-8, 11-7) to ensure a podium finish for the home side.

Although the paddlers were happy with their performance, they continue to rue their defeat to the British side in the previous match.

"Today we played good and did not give much chances to them. But I am feeling bad, because if we would have defeated England it would have been better," Amalraj told after the match.

"Yesterday they (England) were playing better and were also quite comfortable with Sharath," he added.

However, he was happy to win his first CWG medal, that also in front of the home support. "But the mood of the team members is fine. We have won the bronze and we are happy for that."

Abishek said, "It is the first CWG medal for me too. We got a good start in the match and after that it was not very tough to beat Nigeria. We also got good support from the crowd.

"But it would have been more special had we overcome England," he added.

Meanwhile, top seed Singapore men's team came from behind to beat England 3-1 and clinch the gold in Commonwealth Games' table tennis competition at the Yamuna Sports Complex.

Defending champions and second seed, India went down to England 1-3 in the semifinal of the event on Friday.