India rode on a gritty performances from Veer Chotrani and Yash Fadte to upset second seeds Malaysia 2-1 to reach the boys’ final of the Asian junior team squash championship in Pattaya, Thailand, on Saturday while the girls’ team finished with a bronze medal after losing their semi-final against the same opponents.
In the summit clash, India boys will now take on Pakistan against whom they had lost in the group encounter.
It was Yash Fadte who set the ball rolling for the Indian team in the semi-final when he defeated Duncan Lee Yung 11-2, 12-10, 12-10. Utkarsh Baheti, however, could not maintain the momentum and lost 1-11, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11 against Siow Yee Xian.
And it looked like the Indian boys would also have to settle for the bronze medal after Chotrani lost the opening game against Muhammad Amir Amirul Bin Azhar.
However, the 17-year-old from Mumbai set aside all fancy strokes and concentrated only on wearing down his opponent to finally win the match 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 20-18. Chotrani did not lose focus despite failing to convert five match-ball situations in the fourth game to win the grueling encounter and set India up for a summit clash on Sunday.
In the morning session, the Indians girls were no match for their higher ranked opponents with both Sanya Vats and Yoshna Singh losing in straight game Aifa Azman and Chan Yiwen respectively.
The loss notwithstanding, the ’ overall show was far better than the 6th place finish in Hong Kong two years ago. “I am happy with the performance. Three of the four girls in our squad are 16 years old so they have a future. Ofcourse two girls were unable to make it so we look forward now to a good performance in the World junior championship in July this year,” said national coach Cyrus Poncha.
Results (Semi-final):
Boys: India bt Malaysia 2-1 (Utkarsh Baheti bt Siow Yee Xian 1-11, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11; Yash Fadte bt Duncan Lee Yung Yi 11-2, 12-10, 12-10; Veer Chotrani bt Muhammad Amir Amirul Bin Azhar 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 20-18).
Girls: Malaysia bt India 2-0 (Aifa Azman bt Sanya Vats 11-2, 11-6, 11-6; Chan Yiwen bt Yoshna Singh 11-6, 11-1, 11-6)
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