Srikanth wages a lone battle as India settle for bronze
HYDERABAD: Playing in front of screaming fans, India failed to negotiate the tricky Indonesian challenge as they went down 1-3 in the Badminton Asia Team Championships.
Making the semis of a team event, a medal was guaranteed for the first time since the 1982 Asian Games. With the showing on Saturday, the men also secured their Thomas Cup qualification.
The team would have wanted to do better but Indonesia were far superior. No matter what the hosts tried, their opponents had a suitable answer.
Kidambi Srikanth started the proceedings with a hard-fought victory over Tommy Sugiarto. The world No 9’s win gave hope, but with both the doubles combines falling short and Ajay Jayaram failing in his defensive strategies, India had to be satisfied with a bronze.
Srikanth, once world No 4, beat Indonesia’s No 1 Sugiarto 21-14, 23-25, 21-9 with a strategy of keeping the shuttle in play and letting the opponent err. Having beaten Srikanth thrice as opposed to his opponent winning only once, Sugiarto held on to every point.
He erred in the first game but in the second, he showed no signs of slowing down. Getting the lead, he put Srikanth on the back foot. But the wily Indian soon played some quick points to claw back.
However, unforced errors on crucial points from the Indian saw the second game reach a nail-biting stage. Sugiarto would set up a game point but Srikanth showed nerves of steel to equalise. However, on the fourth game point, the 25-year-old’s unforced error handed Sugiarto what he wanted — to level scores. That probably fired up the Indian as in the third, he simply swept away Sugiarto 21-9 to give India a 1-0 lead. FAILED CHANCES The duo of Manu Attri and Sumeet B Reddy, who gave India a win in the quarters, failed to reproduce their magic. They went down to the world No 2 pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 11-21, 10-21 in just 23 minutes.
Jayaram, whose clinical victory against China set up India’s win, had no answer to Ginting Anthony. The world No 34 didn’t allow Jayaram to dictate terms as the Indian failed to get the better of his attacks. The 28-year-old tried in the second game but it was too late. He went down 15-21, 20-22 in 39 minutes to give Indonesia a 2-1 lead.
When Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar came on court, the few Indonesian fans in the crowd were on their feet. Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi took the first game 21-13. Chopra and Dewalkar fought back to take the second 18-21. In the end, unforced errors did the Indians in. It was just too much as Dewalkar’s dive on match point failed to retrieve the shuttle. The scoreboard read 21-15 in Indonesia’s favour, ending India’s aspirations of making the final.