Sindhu, Ponnappa and co enthrall crowd; Lanka, Pak engage in fierce contest
SHILLONG: Continuing their domination in badminton in the 12th South Asian Games, the Indian men’s and women’s teams sailed to the semis of the event at the NEHU, SAI Special Area Games here on Sunday.
While the men have set up a mouth watering semi-final clash with Pakistan on Monday, the women’s side will take on Bangladesh in the round of four.
Other sides which made it to the semis in the men’s event were Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka also made it to the round of four in the women’s category along with Nepal.
It was business as usual for the Indian women’s team comprising of PV Sindhu, Ruthvika Shivani, Ashwani Ponnappa, PC Thulasi, K Maneesha and Sikki Reddy, which raced to a 3-0 win over lowly ranked opponents Nepal who could hardly put up a semblance of a fight.
PV Sindhu launched the proceedings for India beating Nepal’s Sara Devi Tamang 21-2, 21-8. Sindhu’s smashes were too hot to handle for the young Nepalese who had no choice but to wait for the inevitable. The tall, agile and crafty Indian dismissed her opponent with absolute ease even as a lively crowd put all its weight behind the Indian star. The Indian killed competition in the first set itself and the second was a mere formality.
Once Shivani went past her rival 21-6, 21-2 in the second game in just 15 minutes, the crowd was ready with a loud cheer to welcome the famed doubles duo of Sindhu and Ponnappa.
The stands reverberated with chants of “India India” and even “Sindhu-Sindhu” as the Indian women made merry on the court. The duo closed the game 21-10, 21-8 with absolute ease.
Later in the last session, India beat Afghanistan 3-0 to complete yet another perfect day at office.
The Indian men’s side too had it easy against Afghanistan who went down 0-3 on Sunday. Ajay Jayram swept aside Sayid Kabir 21-4, 21-4 before HS Prannoy downed Fahim Yari 21-8, 21-11 in just 20 minutes.
India had beaten Maldives and Bangladesh on Saturday.
In other matches of the day, the Sri Lankan women beat Bangladesh 3-0 and Pakistan women beat Maldives 3-0. Later in the evening session, Bangladesh beat Pakistan 3-0 in a closely contested affair.
In the men’s event, Sri Lanka and Pakistan set the stands on fire with their fiercely contested battle, especially the one between Sri Lanka’s Sachin Dias and Pakistan’s Murad Aliq. Dias beat Aliq 25-23, 15-21, 21-15 as Lanka went on to win 3-0. Second best side in Group B, Pakistan also proceeded.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh men’s team beat Maldives 3-0 to make the semis cut.