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India couldn't have possibly asked for a better Sunday at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Starting from the morning, history has been rewritten in all pages of Commonwealth history. Day 4 turned dramatically in favour of the Indian table tennis women's team (comprising of Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar) at the close of the day with India forcing the biggest upset of CWG so far, by defeating Singapore and clinching their first gold medal in table tennis.
Adding a wonderful 7th gold medal to the tally, Manika Batra shouldered the responsibility to lead her country into a confident and well-deserved win. The stakes were high since the morning but with India outplaying England (3-0), the pressure had built up as they qualified for the nail-biting finals against the defending champions since the inception of TT in the Games, Singapore.
Going up against Singapore's Tianwei Feng in the final rush for the gold medal, all eyes and hopes were pinned on Batra. The question at the back of everyone's mind nagging at a stretch was - Can she do it? Can India claim a gold defeating Singapore, who have never lost the finals ever since Table Tennis was introduced in the Games in 2002?
With the questions looming in the air, Batra played an assertive game against Tianwei Feng, never letting the world number four from Singapore to settle. This victory marks Batra's biggest career win against a very strong opponent.(11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7.)
Not wasting any time, the ace paddler, Batra hastened into the lead, winning the first game 11-8, rattling off the last three points. Feng would claw back and win the next two 11-8, 11-7. The match proved to be pretty close and each point very crucial till Batra managed to take it to the fifth and final game where she forced errors out of the World No. 4 before gunning down 4 back-to-back points to lay her hands on the gold and create a Commonwealth record.
The emotions that erupted from the team were raw and pure with all of them rising to their feet and hurrying to hug Manika in celebration. The depth and impact of their feat is truly incredible and it'll take a few days to settle in. After this incredible win, one thing can be safely said - India has finally risen from the status of being an underdog in women's table tennis and registered its name in the favourites list for sure.
