'Stunning victory' - Indian cricketers laud Manika Batra for her come from behind win in second round of Tokyo Olympics

Indian athletes continued to shine for the second day running in the ongoing Olympic games in Tokyo. One of them was the table tennis player Manika Batra who stormed into the third round of the competition keeping the hopes of winning the medal alive. She defeated the World number 32 Margaryta Pesotska and the way she won the match has amazed everyone.

Manika was behind and not finding her groove. In just 11 minutes into the match, she lost two sets by a margin of 4-11 each. She wore a worried look with things going away from her quickly. However, she gained composure soon to get the better of the opposition and made a stunning comeback winning the next two sets by 11-7 and 12-10.

Margaryta then again got the better of her by 8-11. However, Manika Batra had found her mojo by then increasing the length of the rallies and superbly won the final two sets by 11-5 and 11-7. Overall, she won the match by 4 sets to 3 and definitely, it was one of her best wins given that she was way behind at one stage.

Cricketing fraternity delighted for Manika Batra

The whole nation had its eyes set on Manika Batra’s sensational play and even the cricketing fraternity wasn’t behind in it. As soon as she won the match from behind, congratulatory tweets flooded in for her. Manika, who is ranked 62 in the world, had stunned the 32nd ranked player and certainly, it must have boosted her confidence now ahead of the third round.

The challenge only gets tougher for the 26-year-old as she will now face the world number 17 Sofia Polcanova in the third round. In the meantime, the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Yusuf Pathan and many others cherished the victory and congratulated Manika Batra.

“That was an outstanding comeback by Manika Batra to win that. Bahut bahut badhiya. Just one step away from a medal #Tokyo2020,” Virender Sehwag wrote in his tweet.

Here’s how the cricketing fraternity reacted: