India at CWG 2018: Manika Batra leads country to historic women TT gold

Earlier today, India had blanked England 3-0 to reach the women's team final for the second time

Press Trust of India  |  Gold Coast 

Manika Batra, cwg 2018
Manika Batra in action at Commonwealth Games 2018 at Gold Coast | Photo: Reuters

inspired India to a historic gold medal with her stunning singles victories, fashioning an unthinkable 3-1 victory over four-time gold medallists Singapore in the final of the women's team event at the

World No 58 Batra first scored the biggest of her career by humbling world number four and multiple Olympic medallist Feng Tianwei 3-2 before brushing aside 100th-ranked Yihan Zhou 3-0 to engineer a sensational win over the mighty Singapore side.

It was mother of all upsets as prior to this final, the Singapore women's team had never lost in the since the sport was inducted in the program way back in 2002.

ALSO READ: CWG 2018: Weightlifter Vikas Thakur secures bronze in 94 kg category

The victory tasted even sweeter as the women had returned empty handed from the Glasgow edition four years ago. It was only the second team gold for India at the Games with the men achieving the feat in the 2006 Melbourne edition.

Earlier today, India had blanked England 3-0 to reach the women's team final for the second time.

ALSO READ: CWG 2018: Shooting medal rush for India; Bhaker wins gold, Sidhu silver

While Batra was the architect of India's historic win, the experienced pairing of Madhurika Patkar and Mouma Das played the supporting role to perfection by winning the crucial doubles tie 3-1 (11-7 11-6 8-11 11-7) against Zhou and Mengyu Yu for a 2-1 lead in the final.

ALSO READ: CWG 2018: 4th gold for India as Rahul Ragala gets medal in weightlifting

After Batra shocked Feng 3-2 (11-8 8-11 7-11 11-9 11-7) in the opening singles, Mengyu had equalized for Singapore with a straight game win over Patkar.

Batra then proved to be too good for Yihan, who failed to read her deceptive strokes. The Singaporean put a back hand long as the Indian completed a 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-7), leading to wild celebrations.

First Published: Sun, April 08 2018. 18:42 IST