India in men's team
final; women third

India pulled off a major upset, beating defending champions England to storm into the men's team championship final in the 15th Commonwealth table tennis championships, in Delhi, on Monday.

Down 0-2, India, spearheaded by Chetan Baboor -- who won both his singles -- got the better of the ten-times champions 4-3 in a thrilling semi-final.

India's gamble of naming Chetan Baboor as their weakest player, in order to avoid playing England's best player, paid off as the hosts won four of the remaining five matches to edge out the ten-time champions.

This is the third time India have reached the final of the championships. They finished runners-up to England in 1991 and 1997.

In the final on Tuesday, India will take on third seed Nigeria, who also caused an upset by blanking second seed Singapore 4-0 in the other semi-final.

India's whole strategy depended on avoiding a clash between Baboor and Syed Matthew, who is the defending champion in the men's singles of the Open event and also the highest ranked male in the championship.

Either national champion Soumyadeep Roy or S Raman were required to win at least one of their two singles, and a win in the doubles could have given India the victory. The strategy went exactly as planned, with Raman winning his second singles against Andrew Baggaley. Baboor won both his singles matches and combined with Raman to pull it off in doubles to give India a memorable victory.

Soumyadeep could not give much trouble to Alex Perry in the opening match as he went down 18-21, 14-21, but Raman took a game from Mathew before losing 21-17, 11-21, 11-21 in the second tie.

Baboor should have won comfortably against Baggaley but the Indian, after winning the first game easily at 21-13, squandered a 13-9 lead to lose the second game 18-21. He, however, made amends in the decider despatching the Englishman 21-11 to clinch a fast-paced match.

Baboor and Raman, seeking a hat-trick of titles in the doubles of the Open event, lost their opening game but rallied to beat the pair of Perry and Gareth Herbert 17-21, 21-16, 21-12 and the hosts' plan was spot on.

With the score tied at 2-2, all India needed was either a win from Somyadeep or Raman in the singles. And Raman did win after Soumyadeep lost 9-21, 21-15, 9-21 to Mathew. He beat Baggaley in the most exciting match of the day.

Raman was up throughout in the first game against Baggaley, who prefers a very fast and attacking game, and matched him stroke for stroke. With the crowd cheering him on, a pepped up Raman played some brilliant smashes and combined them effectively with fine placements to outwit Baggaley 21-15, 21-19.

Baboor ran away with the first game in the decider against Alex Perry, winning it 21-7. In the second, the players were even till 7-7 after which Baboor went ahead to take a 12-8 and then 14-11 lead which he made 20-15 to enjoy five match points.

After conceding one point, Baboor closed out the game and the match at 21-16 when Perry hit a return long.

A jubiliant Baboor and coach Manjit Dua attributed the success to effective planning and its meticulous execution.

"We had never beaten England before. We were the underdogs but we enjoyed a pschycological advantage because we had nothing to lose. We played to a gameplan and it clicked," Baboor told reporters.

The Indian women meanwhile came up with their best ever performance in the championships when they beat New Zealand to finish third.

India, who made the semi-final grade for the first time only to lose to Malaysia, came twice from behind to beat New Zealand, who were defeated by Singapore in the other semi-final, 4-3 in an engrossing encounter.

India fielded N R Indu for the first time in the championships but she was sent packing by New Zealand's Li Chunli, ranked 42 in the world. Chunli won 15-21, 21-15, 21-10.

National champion Paulomi Ghatak squared the scores for India when she despatched the challenge of Karen Li 21-11, 21-5 and Mouma Das put the hosts ahead with a fluent 21-8, 21-15 win against Tracey McLauchlan.

The doubles team of Mouma and Paulomi, who had won all their previous matches, tasted defeat for the first time when they lost 9-21, 16-21.

Chunli then defeated Paulomi 15-21, 21-6, 21-15 to give New Zealand a 3-2 lead, before Mouma Das and Indu won the last two singles to give India victory.

Mouma defeated Karen 21-19, 21-13 while Indu beat McLauchlan 21-16, 21-17.

Indian women lose to Malaysia in semis

The Indian women, however were not lucky as they made an exit at the semi-final stage, losing 1-4 to second seeded Malaysia earlier in the day.

The Indian eves lost the best-of-seven tie 1-4, but the matches were closely fought than depicted by the scoreline. In fact, India could have won at least two of the four singles which they eventually lost.

In the end they had to be content with just one win in the doubles, which Mauma Das and Poulami Ghatak won against Yao Lingjin and Beh Lee Wei in straight games 24-22, 21-19 to make it 1-3 after Malaysia swept the first three singles.

India were looking at a 1-0 lead when Poulami Ghatak led 10-3 in the second game against Beh Lee Fong after winning the first game comfortably at 21-12. But the Malaysian staged a brilliant rally to knot the game at 13-13. From there on the each and every point was closely fought resulting in a deuce at 20-all.

After a battle of nerves, Lee Fong won the game 26-24 converting the fifth match point.

The decider turned out to be one sided affair with the Malaysian winning 21-11 to put Malaysia ahead.

In the second singles, M S Mythili lost to Yao Lingjing, ranked 81 in the world. Lingjing won 21-9 21-12.

Trailing 0-2, Mauma Das again raised India's hopes in the third singles againt Beh Lee Wei when she too won the first game easily at 21-14. But the Lee Wei had other ideas as she raised her game to win the next two games 21-16, 21-13 to give Malaysia a commanding 3-0 lead.

After India pulled one back after winning the doubles, Poulami stepped out for the third time in the match and she had to win for India to stay in the tie.

Just as she played against Lee Fong in the opener, Poulami gave Yao Lingjing a tough run but failed to convert the crucial points. Poulami had four game points in the first game when she led 20-16. But Lingjing turned on the heat to win six consecutive points as the Indian lost the game 20-22.

Undeterred, the Indian continued the fight in the second game as both players went neck-and-neck till 14-14. Once again, Lingjing repeated the trick racing to a 20-15 lead and sealed the match at 21-15.