Indian men, women TT teams win gold in SAG

India clinched two gold medals in the men's and women's table tennis team events with easy wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan to swell their overall tally at the 12th South Asian Games here today.
This was the table tennis men's and women's teams 12th successive gold medal wins from as many editions of the Games as India asserted their overall supremacy in the region.
Lanky Lankan Udaya Ranasinghe gave national champion Anthony Amalraj some trouble before the India registered a 11-9 13-11 6-11 11-8 win to give them a 1-0 lead.
Trailing 5-9 Amalraj had a tough time coming into his own for a first game lead while the second game too went down the wire and third was won by the Lankan.

However, the Indian had no trouble in the fourth as he wrapped up the issue with ease.
Dishing out powerful service, G Sathiyan stormed past Rohan Sirisena 11-3 11-3 11-3 to double the lead.

Sanil Shetty was down 8-11 in the first game but the southpaw overcame strongly to win 11-3 and 11-7 to snatch a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set went down the wire as both were locked 11-11 before Shetty settled the issue 13-11.
The women's team earlier opened the tally for India when they outplayed Pakistan 3-0 en route to their 12th successive team gold medal in the competition at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall.

Reigning national champion Manika Batra used her 5 feet 11 inches frame to great advantage to hammer Raheela Kashif 11-2 11-6 11-6 in the first rubber.
Five-time national champion Mouma Das had little difficulty against Shabnam Bilal to take the tie 11-7 11-4 11-4.
In front of a rousing crowd support, K Shamini clinched the issue in the third rubber when she swept aside Ayesha Ansari 11-3 11-3 11-7.
Earlier in the women's semifinals, Indian team beat Bangladesh 3-0 to set up a final clash against arch-rivals Paksitan who had overcome a stiff challenge from Sri Lanka with a 3-2 win.

Indian men's team had earlier outplayed Pakistan 3-0.