After the women’s team had won Gold earlier in the evening, it was time for their male counterpart to follow suit, clinching the gold by beating Brazil 3-2 at the World Table Tennis Championships second division in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
Unlike the women’s fixture, which they won comfortably 3-1, the Men’s team had to grind it out and eventually sealed it to make it double delight for the day.
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Acharya Sharath Kamal was given a rest for the final and that decision of the management looked to have backfired when India found themselves trailing 1-2 after Soumyajit Ghosh lost his opening contest before Harmeet Desai made it all square in the second tie.
Much was expected of Anthony Amalraj, but on the big day, he failed to deliver losing to Thiago Monterio and it was advantage Brazil at that point.
However, Ghosh came back in the fourth tie and made it 2-2, defeating Cazuo Matsumoto 3-0 to take the final into the fifth and final contest. In the fifth and final contest, Harmeet made it 9-10 after being 6-9 down at one point before holding his nerve to clinch the tie 15-13, that included two match points saves and two deuces to win the yellow medal for India.
Reacting to the win, Sharath Kamal said that it was like a dream come true for him and spoke about the possibility of playing in the Championship Division.
“It is like a dream come true for me and the team because by 2018 if I am still in the team, we will be playing in the Championship Division for the first time,” Kamal said.
