New Delhi:
Indian women's table tennis team went off to a mixed start, while their male counterparts began their journey on a winning note in the 19th Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
Indian women thrashed Sri Lanka 3-0 in their first match but then went down fighting to New Zealand 2-3 in the next Group D encounter at the picturesque Yamuna Sports Complex.
Meanwhile, Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal did not play but the Indian men's team hardly broke a sweat to spank Vanuatu 3-0 in their first Group B match.
Former national champion Kumaresan Shamini beat Annie Yang of New Zealand 3-1 in the first match to send India one-up, but Madhurika Patkar then proved no match to Karen Li and was thrashed 0-3.
Another former India number one, Mouma Das then used all her experience to bring India back to the contest, beating Yang Sun 3-1 in front of a capacity crowd which cheered every point that the Indian side registered.
However, in the next two matches Shamini and Madhurika failed to cash on the home support. Shamini lost to Karen 2-3, while Madhurika was defeated by Yang 1-3 in the return matches.
But the close defeat notwithstanding, India coach Bhawani Mukherjee said they still have enough chance to enter the next round.
"It was a tough match but anyone's match. We performed well as the girls gave good fight. Our performance was not bad but we lost the game unfortunately. But it would not be a problem for us because we can beat the other teams in the group," he said after the New Zealand match.
Earlier, the women easily overcame Sri Lanka 3-0.
Shamini started the proceedings, thrashing Vithan Gonapinuwala 3-0 and then Mouma beat I M Badu Manikku with an identical scoreline.
Reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak then rounded off the score against their southern neighbour by beating Kavini R Sahabandhu 3-0.
The fourth seed, Indian women will face Ghana tomorrow.
In men's section, it was an easy match for the Indians, who left their inexperienced opponents completely clueless on the other side of the board.
Soumyadeep Roy first beat Lulu Ham 3-0 and then former national champion Subhajit Saha overcame Benjamin Randy with the same result.
Ravichandran Abishek beat Yoshua Shing 3-0 to settle the issue.
"It was an easy match and we are not going to face much competition in the group stage. Actual competition will start only in the quarterfinal," Saha said after their victory.
Asked about the home support, Saha said, "We are ready to handle the pressure of expectation. We won it in Melbourne in 2006 and know how to do it again. We are ready to take on any opponent."
Second seed, Indian men's team will play against Guyana in their next Group B match tomorrow.
Meanwhile, reigning world champion Singapore's women were simply unstoppable on the first day of the competition.
After beating Guernsey (3-0) comprehensively in the first encounter, Singapore women produced the same scoreline against Canada in their second group league match.