Indian paddlers on Thursday assured the country of a total five medals from table tennis when reigning national champion Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das clinched a bronze, beating Australians Tan Z Vivian and Campbell-Innes Peri in women's doubles' third place play-off.
Determined to make up for Wednesday's semi-final loss, the Bengal paddlers started on an attacking note and bagged the first game 11-4 at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
The Australians tried to make a comeback in next game, but the experienced Indians survived some early challenges before getting the better of the opponents 11-7.
In the third game of the best-of-five contest, it was an easy journey for the Indian pair as they simply outplayed Vivian and Peri 11-1 to clinch the issue and claimed the bronze in that category.
"It certainly looked easy, but we had to fight hard in the match. I would say our hardwork paid off today. It is specially important because me and Mouma are childhood friends and we have been playing together since long," Poulomi said after the match.
"Its dream come true for us to win in front of the home crowd," she added.
Mouma said, "Both the coaches (Bhawani Mukherjee and Massimo Constantini) have played very important roles in our success."
The Indians had lost to Singaporeans Sun Beibei and Li Jiawei 0-3 in the final-four stage.
Meanwhile, Beibei-Jiawei claimed the gold medal, defeating compatriots Tianwei Feng and Wang Yuegu 3-2 in the final.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and former national champion Subhajit Saha on Wednesday ensured that table tennis contributed a gold in India's medal tally by overcoming Singaporeans Gao Ning and Yang Zi 3-2 in the men's doubles final.
Indian women have already clinched a silver, while their men counterparts have fetched a bronze in the team events.
