It was 9-9 in the deciding fifth game of the mixed doubles quarterfinals table tennis-match between India and England. Emotions were running high. Achanta Sharath Kamal, 40, a veteran of many battles, decided to calm things down. He had a long chat with his young partner Sreeja Akula and that did the trick. The duo silenced the home crowd to seal the game 11-9 and win the tie 3-2 to book a semifinal berth on Friday.
The Indian pair defeated England's Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9.
However, it was heartbreak for Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who were playing simultaneously on another table. They could not hold their nerve and lost to Malaysia's Javen Choong and Karen Lyne 2-3 (10-12, 11-9, 11-8, 7-11, 7-11). This was Batra's second failure after she missed out on a podium finish in the women's team event. On Friday, the Indians was guilty of allowing their rivals to stage a comeback after taking a 2-1 lead. It was more of a catch-up game for them after that and the star pair failed miserably.
Earlier, Batra and Akula entered the singles quarterfinals in contrasting fashion. While reigning CWG champion Batra thrashed Australia's Jee Minhyung 11-4, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 to make the last eight, Sreeja had to dig deep to overcome Wales' Charlotte Carey 4-3. The 24-yearold CWG debutant made a shaky start and lost the first game 8-11.
She made a comeback with a win in second (11-7). But she again lost ground losing the next two (12-14, 9-11). But she fought well to make it 3-3 by winning her next two games (11-4, 15-13) and the clinched the final game 12-10 to for a quarterfinal spot. Reeth Tennison, another Indian in the fray, went down to Singapore's Feng Tianwei 1-4 (2-11, 4-11, 11-9, 3-11, 4-11) in a women's singles Round 16 game.
In the men's events, Sharath and Sathiyan entered the quarterfinals of the doubles easing past Bangladesh's Bawm Ramhimlian and Ridoy Mohutasin Ahmed in straight games 11-6, 11-1, 11-4. The other Indian doubles pair of Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty also made the last-eight stage defeating the Australian pair of Chambers Dillon and Yan Xin 3-1 (11-3, 9-11, 9-11, 7-11).
