The Indian men’s side tasted defeat for the first time in the 2018 Badminton Asia Team Championship after going down 2-3 against Indonesia on Thursday.
After winning their opening two ties rather comfortably against Philippines and Maldives, the Indians were up against it versus a strong Indonesian team from the word go. World No 4 K Srikanth took on the 13th-ranked Jonathan Christie in the first singles match but was beaten in straight games 17-21, 17-21 in just 35 minutes, as his indifferent start to 2018 continued.
The impressive Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then brought India level by defeating Mohammad Ahsan and World No 1 Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 18-21, 21-18 24-22 in 53 minutes.
It was then B Sai Praneeth’s turn to take on world No 9 Anthony Ginting and the Indian was not the favourite to come through but he did so – and that too in straight games – to put India in the lead. He ran ahead 21-18, 21-19 in 44 minutes to record a crucial win.
MR Arjun and Shlok Ramchandran then had a chance to seal the tie for India but they went down in three games to Angga Pratama and Rian Agung Saputro 14-21, 21-16, 21-12 in 48 minutes.
The deciding game was always going to be out of India’s reach, as doubles specialist B Sumeeth Reddy was pitted against singles world No 39 Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, who won 21-12, 21-7 in just 25 minutes. Sumeeth Reddy played the third singles tie because Sameer Verma had a neck sprain and was rested.
The defeat did not impact India’s men’s team as such in the tournament as they had already qualified for the quarter-finals where they will face China.
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