India won the gold medal in the table tennis women's team event at the Commonwealth Games by beating defending champions Singapore 3-1 on Sunday.
With this win, the team bettered their previous-best performance at the Commonwealth Games. They had earlier won silver at New Delhi in 2010, when they also faced Singapore in the final.
This achievement tales India's medal tally to 12 -- including seven golds, two silvers and three bronze medals.
The Indian team of Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe had advanced to the gold medal match by blanking England 3-0 in the semi-finals earlier on Sunday. Entering the final as the underdogs, they stunned Ye Lin, Wanling Zing, Tianwei Feng, Mengyu Yu and Yihan Zhou.
Singapore has been the most dominant side ever since table tennis was inducted into the Games' program in 2002, having won every gold medal in the women's team event.
In the opening singles rubber, World No. 58 Manika gave a tough competition to World No. 4 Feng, pulling off a major upset of 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7, to give India an early lead. In the next singles rubber, Patkar failed to carry on with the momentum, losing 11-13, 2-11, 6-11 to Yu to level the tie at 1-1.
Patkar returned in action alongside the experienced Mouma, both of whom were also part of the 2010 team, in the doubles rubber. This time, they outplayed Yu and Zhou 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7 to take a 2-1 lead to inch closer to gold.
In the next singles match, Manika was pitched against Zhou, ranked World No. 100. She continued with her scintillating form, sealing India's gold by defeating the Singaporean 11-7, 11-4, 11-7.
Earlier in the day, Team England defeated Australia 3-1 in the bronze medal match to earn the third spot.
