Table tennis: Duo through to semis

MELBOURNE - Annie Yang and Karen Li were a point away from Commonwealth Games oblivion today but dug deep to now be a match away from the women's table tennis doubles gold medal decider.

The New Zealand duo were facing a quarterfinal exit at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre when trailing 6-10 in the fifth set but clawed themselves back from the brink to trump their Indian opponents Mouma Dar and Poulomi Ghatak 12-10.

"You couldn't get any closer than that. At 6-10 it looked all over," table tennis team manager Ron Garrett said.

"We weren't feeling confident but they played safe and the Indians made a couple of mistakes."

The New Zealander's reward for their 9-11 15-13 12-10 11-13 12-10 victory is a meeting with top-seeded Singaporeans Jia Wei Li and Xue Ling Zhang tomorrow.

Garrett said the gold medal favourites justified their ranking but took some solace from the fact they were pushed by English duo Kelly Sibley and Joanna Parker who nicked the second set before succumbing 11-8 8-11 11-9 11-5.

- NZPA