Indian paddlers stumble in second round

Barring S Raman and Mantu Ghosh, all the other Indian pairs fell by the wayside in the second round of the table tennis mixed doubles event in the 17th Commonwealth Games at Manchester on Thursday.

Raman and Mantu were the only success story as they defeated the Lesotho pair of Monyooe Taole and Boteng Ntisane 11-6, 11-2, 11-2 to progress to the second round on a rather disappointing day for the Indians.

The fancied pair of Chetan Baboor and N R indu suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the English duo of Andrew Baggaley and Goergina Walker in straight sets 10-12, 7-11, 5-11 in a rather one-sided contest.

Soumyadeep Roy and Mouma Das also bit the dust in the second round going down to the Singaporean pair of Tai Yong Zhang and Jun Hong Jing 8-11, 4-11, 5-11 while Sourav Chakraborty and Poulomi Ghatak also saw their challenge put to an end by another Singaporean team Xiao Li Cai and Xue Ling Zhang 8-11, 3-11, 7-11.

However, the women paddlers put up a disciplined performance in the doubles event with two teams cruising into the quarter-finals.

Mantu Ghosh and N R Indu had to struggle a little bit before overwhelming the Welsh pair of Betham Daunton and Natasha Lake with a hard-fought 3-2 margin.

Mantu and Indu conceded the first set but raised their game several notches to eventually carve out a labourious 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 14-12, 11-8 victory.

Another Indian pair of Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak did not have to sweat much as they spanked the girls from Trinidad and Tobago with a 11-3, 17-15, 11-8 verdict in a contest which lasted hardly 40 minutes.

In the men's doubles event, S Raman and Chetan Baboor moved into the quarter finals by prevailing over A Gita and P Mutambuze of Uganda 11-8, 11-3, 11-3 in a match which lasted 30 minutes.

Sourav Chakraborty and Soumyadeep Roy are also in contention for a medal after getting a walkover in the second round.