Indian men in CW TT title clash

New Delhi (PTI): 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 on Tuesday. 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 on Tuesday. 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 on Tuesday 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. Earlier, trailing 0-2 in the semifinals, Indian women posed a fearless challenge to the higher-seeded English side at the Thyagaraja Stadium.

Results (Semifinals): Men: India bt England 3-2 (Sharath Kamal lost to Samuel Walker; Soumyajit Ghosh bt Andrew Baggaley; Harmeet Desai lost to Daniel Reed; Sharath Kamal bt Andrew Baggaley; Soumyajit Ghosh bt Samuel Walker) Singapore bt Scotland 3-0 (Zhan Jian bt Sean Doherty; Li Hub t Craig Howieson; Chen Feng lost to Gavin Rumgay; Zhan Jian bt Craig Howieson) Women: England bt India 3-1 (Kelly Sibley bt Mouma Das; Joanna Parker bt Madhurika Patkar; Hannah Hicks lost to Neha Aggarwal; Joanna Parker lost to Mouma Das; Kelly Sibley bt Madhurika Patkar)