Manchester: The Indian paddlers, taking part in the Commonwealth Games for the first time, began their campaign on a promising note on the opening day of the team table tennis event.

The men's team had no difficulty in brushing aside the challenge of lowly Maldives with an emphatic 3-0 margin, while the women's team had to dig deep into their reserves to get past Wales 3-2 in a keenly contested affair.

Displaying very good form, the talented Sourav Chakraborty gave the Indians the lead with a facile 11-4 11-3 11-4 victory over Ahmed D' Mirzai of Maldives in what turned out to be a rather one-sided contest.

Former national champion Soumyadeep Roy than consolidated the position for his team with a convincing 11-6 11-6 11-5 victory over Shuree Ibrahim while Subhajit Saha clinched the issue with a 12-10 11-9 11-2 win over Rasheed Ali.

PTI