Sports
Sathiyan-Ankita clinch mixed doubles gold
Surat: India’s G. Sathiyan and Ankita defeated compatriots Soumyajit Ghosh and Mouma Das 11-7, 8-11, 15-13, 11-7 to clinch the gold medal in the Avadh 20th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.
Soumyajit and Mouma had to be satisfied with the silver, while the bronze went to another Indian pair of Sanil Shetty and Manika Batra.
With these three medals in pocket, along with the teams’ gold (men) and silver (women), India overhauled their highest medal tally — they won nine medals from the last edition at New Delhi — to reach the figure of 16 medals.
It was a clean sweep of medals for the Indian men’s pairs, thanks to a fine performance by Sudhanshu Grover and Abhishek Yadav, who outsmarted the No. 2 seed duo of Singapore’s Panx Xue Ji and Chen Feng in the fourth quarter-final.
Grover and Yadav beat their rivals 11-6, 10-12, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8 to earn a semi-final meeting with Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai who got a walkover from the Scottish pair of Rumgay Gavin and Craig Howieson.
The other semi-final will feature Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty who accounted for Cyprus’ Marios Yiangou and Hristo Hristonov 11-2, 11-5, 11-4, and Sathiyan and Devesh Karia, the two benefitting from the walkover of top-seeded Singapore duo of Li Hu and Chew Zhe Yu Clarence.
Earlier in the day, Li Hu pulled out citing side strain and fever.
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.