Nirmala’s lesson: Be focused all the time
A brilliant performance was displayed by Nirmala Jayasinghe, a former national champion in their group match against New Zealand at the 20th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship in India.
20th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship 2015
The battle to win the second place of the group stretched for three hours in night from 7.30 to 10.30pm in Surat, Gujarat India. Nirmala Jayasinghe, who took part as the second player in the team against New Zealand, won the first match 3-1 with Lin Yi-Sien, the number 1 of the New Zealand team giving, a big boost to the whole team.
Rohan Sirisena, captain of the Men’s team played against Ball Matthew, the number 2 New Zealander but Rohan could not come to his natural playing style until he lost two sets but his urge to beat the New Zealander energised him to win the third and fourth sets.
Unfortunately Rohan could not stabilise himself with his best status, and lost the last set giving a good competition to the opponent.
Prasad de Silva of Vidyartha College who played the third single made an unsuccessful effort to keep an eye on the ball and find the right timing to play the right shot with Alexander Josh of New Zealand.
While keeping only one game in hand, Rohan Sirisena played against Lin Yi-Sien of New Zealand in the fourth match.
Although Rohan failed to show his best performance that he had shown earlier when playing for Sri Lanka for more than 15 years, came into action as he pulled back the game from New Zealand winning by 3 sets to 2.
The final deciding match which has fallen to Nirmala of MAS Holdings to play against Ball Matthew, played amazingly thus proving that concentration and adaptation are the key factors to win in any competition.
He adapted to the playing style of his opponent and hit the strategic services to the weakest places of his opponent. Nirmala’s ability to identify the mistakes of the opponent pressurised the opponent by focusing on several mistakes at a stretch which made the score at 2 sets each.
In the last and deciding set of the match Nirmala could not focus until it was 1–8. However, Nirmala took the advantage of his two services and made the score 3-10.
All of a sudden, he remembered how to keep the eye on-the-ball while using tactics of the game whilst playing against an attacking player.
Mathew who knew Nirmala’s mistake of defending himself against his powerful topspin tried to make use of it to win the winning point of not only in that set and match but the whole game against Sri Lanka.
But tactful Nirmala did not allow him to expect the ball to bounce to play his pet shots by varying the speed and the spin of the ball.
Despite the tension of the rest of the Sri Lanka team who cheered from the audience, Nirmala kept his balance of the physique as well as the mind to make the score 10–10. Just trying to relax after a huge fight was the biggest mistake Nirmala made when he offered the leading point to Matthew and the score was 11–10.
Having the service in hand, Nirmala took the right decision at the right moment and took the point giving a good back spin short service to Matthew who was waiting a little bit away from the table in order to do topspin after the first shot.
Motivated by his own service, Nirmala made it happen, winning the final match of the day at 13 – 11 giving all Sri Lankans a lesson: be focussed and don’t give up until the last point.
The women’s team had a comparatively easy path to be number 2 in their group match playing against Northern Ireland:
Ashley Givan lost to Hansani Kapugeekiyana 1-3 (2-11, 11-5, 9-11, 9-11; Emma Ludlow lost to Ishara Madurangi 1-3 (11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 9-11). Erin Thompson lost to Erandi Warusawithana 1-3 (5-11, 4-11, 11-9, 6-11).
In the 2nd round matches the Men’s team played against India, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the round matches with skipper Rohan Sirisena winning the first game against Scotlands Howieson Craig before tasting defeat 3-1 thus opening a challenging battle.
Nirmala Jayasinghe could not maintain his form in the opening match to be beaten by Rumgay Garvin 3-0. Less experienced in foreign competitions, Chameera Ginige lost to Main Calum 3-0. In another match against India the top rankers, the Lankan went down tamely losing 3-0.
The women’s team lost to Commonwealth TT champs Singapore 3-0 and gave no fight against India losing 3-0 in the other second round matches.
Sri Lanka Men will play Northern Ireland in the second stage while women paddlers will play Cyprus for 5th and 6th positions.