Paddlers start Commonwealth Games with win

Bangladesh's table tennis team made a good start to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, beating their Fijian counterparts 3-0 to advance to the next round in the men's team event at the NEC Hall in England today.

In the first match, Hridoy and Ramhim beat their Fijian counterparts 11-7, 11-5 and 11-4 in three sets to provide Bangladesh a 1-0 lead before Rifat Mahmud Sabbir recorded 11-8, 13-11 and 11-6 wins over his Fijian counterpart in the singles event to give Bangladesh a 2-0 lead.

Hridoy followed in Sabbir's footsteps, winning the third match 11-5, 11-3 and 11-7 as Bangladesh won all three sets to advance to the next round.

At 11:00pm today, Bangladesh are scheduled to face Guyana, who beat England. Bangladesh will move into the quarterfinals if they can beat Guyana.