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After India's Para table tennis stars failed to get the better of their opponents on Day 1 of the Tokyo Paralympics 2021 yesterday, they came back strongly today.
Day 2 began with Bhavina Patel's game against world No. 9 Megan Shackleton. The encounter was tightly contested, with neither athlete going easy on the other, but the Indian eventually came out on top.
It was then Sonalben Patel's turn. The 33-year-old gave China's Li Qian a real run for her money yesterday. Unfortunately, Sonalben couldn't outperform her Korean opponent Lee Mi-gyu today and lost 3-1 to crash out of the competition.
Check Out the Tokyo Paralympics Medal Table
How did India fare overall on Day 2 at the Tokyo Paralympics?
The Indian contingent had a total of two events scheduled for the day, spanning women's individual S3 (Group D) and women's individual S4 (Group A).
Here's a look at how the Indian athletes performed on Day 2 of the Tokyo Paralympics 2021:
Bhavina Patel defeats Megan Shackleton 3-1; Qualifies for the knockout stages
Bhavina Patel pulled off a brilliant win against her British counterpart Megan Shackleton after a closely fought contest. While Bhavina won the game 3-1, the contest was much closer than the scoreboard suggests. After the first two games of five, the scoreline was tied at 1-1. Bhavina won the first game but came up short in the second, with the scores reading 11-7 and 9-11 respectively.
The final two games involved various deuces, and Bhavina came out on top on both occasions. The two competitors fought marvelously and the Indian eventually won the crucial third game 17-15.
In the fourth, Bhavina was 7-10 down to Megan at one point, but saved three game points with some fantastic strokeplay to win 13-11.
Sonalben Patel crashes out of competition but goes down fighting
After taking the lead in the first game 12-10, Sonalben lost the second 5-11 to her Korean counterpart Lee Mi-gyu. The Indian paddler seemed to have lost her touch by then and gave away the next game 3-11.
In the fourth game, however, a reawakened Sonalben fought bravely for 10 minutes but lost by a narrow margin of 9-11.
It was a heroic effort from Sonalben, even though she couldn't sustain the momentum that she had started out with. Her late fightback gave fans some hope of a historic comeback but the Korean kept her cool and didn't let the game slip out of her hands.
The loss ended Sonalben Patel's run at the Tokyo Paralympics 2021.
India Paralympics 2021: Medal tally and standings after Day 2, August 26
At the end of Day 2 of the Tokyo Paralympics, China lead the medal tally with 23, including eight gold, ahead of Great Britain (17) and RPC (17). Day 1's table leaders Australia (14) have slipped down to fourth.
India are yet to open their medal account at the Tokyo Paralympics.
