commonwealth games: CWG: Sharath-Sathiyan lose to familiar foes again, settle for silver

The experienced Indian pair of Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan were defeated by England’s Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford in the men’s doubles final of the Commonwealth Games here on Sunday.

The Indian pair had to settle for silver for the second consecutive edition after losing 11-8, 8-11, 3-11, 11-7, 4-11 to the England pair.

It was a repeat of the 2018 final in Gold Coast and much to the dismay of the Indians, it was the same result.

The Indian contingent is getting a lot of support from the crowd here, but the English fans outshone the Indians on the NEC table tennis ground on Sunday.

With little separation of the two pairs, the Indians got off to a good start as Sathiyan beat the forehand winner to take a 1-0 lead in the gold medal match.

Drinkhall and Pitchford made a comeback in the second game. A down the line backhand from Pitchford made it 5–1 for England. The Indians were having a tough time reclaiming serve with their opponents mixing things up.

Sharath’s comeback from the backhand was giving mixed results. The cross court winner of Pitchford gave England a 7-5 lead before leveling the tie after a long rally.

The English pair got away with the third game, having the best rally of the match, which the Indians won after trading a series of forehands too far off the table.

After improving in the fourth game, the Indians were able to reach the final.

However, Drinkhall and Pitchford took a huge six-point lead at 4-4 to collect six gold medal points in the fifth game. He converted the first one, drawing a huge roar from the crowd. The Indian pair shook hands with their opponents who once again proved better on the day.

With silver, 40-year-old Sharath increased his CWG medal tally to 11 with a mixed doubles gold medal match to be held later on Sunday. He is also in the running for the singles medal.

Originally published at Pen 18