The Indian eves today managed to keep a clean slate in the women's team first stage as they topped Group B of the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya, Thailand here and are now just one win away from qualifying for the Champion Division.
Having got a quarterfinal bye in Stage 2, the Indian team needs to win just in the semifinals to ensure itself a place in the Champion Division, where it will get to rub shoulders with the top continental teams.
Besides India, Philippines is another team to be given a quarterfinal bye in stage 2.
India will play the winner of quarterfinals between hosts Thailand and Vietnam, while the Philippines will take on the winner between Iran and North Korea.
The semifinals are slated for tomorrow.
The rest of the teams will play to decide positions.
With just one team from each of the six groups advancing to the knockout phase, it was imperative for the Indian paddlers to top the group. And they did exactly that, beating first Pakistan 3-0, followed by a similar win over Nepal and, finally, Qatar to log six points on the table.
The Indian team comprised Mouma Das, Ankita Das, K Shamini, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Manika Batra.
In the first group match against Pakistan, in-form Manika Das beat Shabnam Bilal 11-5 11-6 11-3, while Mouma Das accounted for Raila Kashif 11-3 11-1 12-10 before Ankita Das defeated Aisha Ansari 11-5 11-4 11-7 -- all wins coming in just an hour.
In the second group match against Nepal, there was no difference in the pattern of victory except the fact that K Shamini and Pooja Sahasrabudhe replaced Manika and Ankita.
Mouma opened against Swechchha Nembang with a 11-5 11-5 11-1 win, then Shamini beat Rabina Maharjan 11-2 11-2 11-6 and Pooja downed Selisha Khadgi 11-5 11-6 11-3. This victory came in a much quicker time.
