India claimed a 3-1 victory over Singapore in the men's team table tennis final at Birmingham 2022 ©Getty Images

India's Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won their doubles and singles matches to help the country defend their men's team table tennis title at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games here.

World number 121 Desai and number 35 Gnanasekaran were joined by Sanil Shetty and Sharath Kamal Achanta on the Indian team that took gold.

All four were part of the team that beat Nigeria to win the event at Gold Coast 2018, and all except Shetty featured in their 3-1 win against Singapore in the final.

Desai and Gnanasekaran dominated Yong Izaac Quek and Yew En Koen Pang to claim a straight-games victory, winning the first 13-11 on a tiebreak and following it with 11-7 and 11-5 triumphs.

There was an upset in the first singles tie of the final, Singapore's world number 133 Zhe Yu Clarence Chew claiming a deserved win against Achanta, ranked 113th in the men's singles by the International Table Tennis Federation.

He came out on top 11-7, 12-14, 11-3, 11-9.

Gnanasekaran and Pang returned to the show court for a singles match, and the Indian player avoided a shock with a 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4 success.

It fell to Desai to round off the victory, comfortably dispatching of Chew 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.

The success was Achanta's 10th Commonwealth Games medal and his fifth gold, dating back to a men's singles and team triumph at Melbourne 2006.

Harmeet Desai, front left, and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, front right, won doubles and singles matches for India in the men's team table tennis final ©Getty Images
Harmeet Desai, front left, and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, front right, won doubles and singles matches for India in the men's team table tennis final ©Getty Images

India had earlier beaten Singapore 3-0 on Friday (July 29) in the group stage, either side of wins by the same scoreline against Barbados and Northern Ireland.

They then beat Bangladesh and Nigeria 3-0 in the knockout stages.

In the match for bronze, England claimed a comfortable 3-0 victory against Nigeria.

The clash between the Gold Coast 2018 bronze and silver medallists went the way of the host nation, beginning with Tom Jarvis and Paul Drinkhall's 11,6, 11-7, 11-7 victory against Bode Abiodun and Olajide Omotayo.

The first singles match pitted the world number 20 Liam Pitchford and world number 15 Quadri Aruna against each other.

Englishman Pitchford triumphed 11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, before Drinkhall returned to the show court to seal the bronze medal.

He eased past Olajide Omotayo 11-4, 11-2, 11-4.

Tomorrow is set to feature men's and women's singles group matches in table tennis.