Men enter finals of team championship, women halted

Indian men paddlers entered the finals of the team championship event after beating England, while the women went down fighting against the same opponents in their semifinal encounter at the 19th Commonwealth Championship here today.
Even as men prevailed 3-2, the women's team lost 2-3 to settle for a bronze medal.
Indian men will now take on mighty Singapore, who defeated Malaysia 3-0, in the finals tomorrow.
The host team, seeded above England, was shocked in the first match when Achantha Sharath Kamal was humbled by 545th ranked Samuel Walker.
The young Englishman who was celebrating his 19th birthday today defeated the Indian veteran 12-10 4-11 12-10 11-9 to give visitors a 1-0 lead.

But Soumyajit Ghosh sprung up a surprise as he crushed England's leading medal winner of all time in the Commonwealth Games, Andrew Baggaley, in straight games.

With his aggressive forehand play, Ghosh completed a resounding 11-7 11-8 11-4 win over five-time CWG medal winner to level the rubber for the hosts.
England's highest ranked player in the tournament, Baggaley (143) looked woefully out of touch and was comprehensively beaten by Sharath Kamal in the reverse match after India's Harmeet Desai lost to Daniel Reed.
The onus was then on Soumyajit to take the Indians to the finals and he faced the paddler who had proved to be the nemesis of Sharath Kamal in the opening match.

The 19-year-old Ghosh, with minimum fuss, got the better off Walker 11-7 12-10 11-6 to enter the finals of the event for the fifth successive time.