Press Trust of India
Hyderabad, Feb 18: India defeated a depleted China 3-2 in their men’s category match of the Badminton Asia Team Championships at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here Thursday.
K Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy emerged triumphant in their respective singles matches to give India the victory. However, both the doubles combinations of the hosts were beaten.
In the first singles, Kidambi Srikanth, currently the top ranked player for India at No.9, gave a great start to his team’s campaign with a superb 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) win over China’s Houwei Tian.
In the second singles between Ajay Jayaram and China’s Zhengming Wang, the Indian won the match 22-20, 15-21, 21-18. It was a stunning result simply because Wang is currently ranked 11th in the World while Jayaram is placed 25th. But on the day rankings did not matter.
It was an exciting contest between Jayaram and Wang as both of them left no stone unturned to outsmart each other. Particularly, the third and decisive game of the match was a battle of wits and Jayaram won it and with it the match.
“It’s a different feeling to play for the country. It’s always great to beat a higher-ranked Chinese player,” Jayaram said after the match.
HS Prannoy, ranked 27, did not have to sweat out much to tame his low-ranked rival Yuqi Shi and he closed the proceedings at 21-14 and 21-10.
The two doubles matches were however, a disappointment for India. Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy lost to China’s Junhui Li-Zihan Qiu 20-22, 11-21 while the pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar was defeated by Yilv Wang-Wen Zhang 10-21, 18-21.
India’s win against China, a formidable force in world badminton, made the Indian players and spectators erupt in joy with a huge round of applause.
Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand expressed his satisfaction after the triumph. “I am very happy and thrilled to see our men’s team pull off a superb victory over China. I am confident our team will maintain the same tempo and momentum and bring laurels for our country,” he said.
Indian team captain Kidambi Srikanth, who won the first singles tie added: “It was a close victory and I am happy that all the team members performed well.”
