World Team TT Championships: Indian men's team continues unbeaten run, downs Kazakhstan in a thriller
Oct 03, 2022
Chengdu [China], October 3 : Indian men's table tennis team continued their winning run at the ongoing World Team Table Tennis Championships 2022 with a win over Kazakhstan in their third Group 2 match on Monday.
India continued their winning run by defeating Kazakhstan by 3-2.
India's top-ranked player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran started off the proceedings against Zholudev Denis. Gnanasekaran dispatched the first challenge to Team India within no time by 3-0 win in three straight sets (11-1,11-9,11-5).
With this win, India took a 1-0 lead in the match.
Harmeet Desai stepped in to play the next game against Kirill Gerassimenko. Kazakhstan made a comeback into the match, winning the game within three straight sets by 11-6, 11-8, 11-9. The game was a highly competitive one as compared to the previous one.
The scores were level at 1-1 between India and Kazakhstan.
Manav Thakkar came to play the third game, locking horns against Kurmangaliyev Alan. The first set was extremely competitive and Manav came out on top by 12-10. The next set saw the Indian effortlessly defeat Alan by 11-1. The story did not change during the final set either as Manav won it 11-8 to seal the game 3-0.
India took a 2-1 lead in the match.
Kazakhstan made things even in the next game. Gnanasekaran succumbed to a 2-3 loss to Kirill. Gnanasekaran started with an 11-6 win in the first set, before succumbing to 5-11 loss in the second. The see-saw game saw him bouncing back with a 14-12 win in third set. but he lost 9-11 in the next one. With things even at 2-2, Kirill won the final set by 6-11 to seal the game 3-2.
Harmeet came to play the final game, a crucial one as both teams were tied at 2-2. The Indian won his side their third straight match of the tournament by winning the final game in three sets by 12-10, 11-9, 11-6.
Previously, India had won matches against Uzbekistan and Germany. India is at the top of group 2 with six points.