Beat Lanka in men’s and women’s team events
SHILLONG: There was no final-day miracle for the visitors at the NEHU, SAI Special Area Games as India clinched Gold in the men’s and women’s badminton team events here on Monday. Such was the dominance of this Indian contingent that it did not even drop a set in the entire event. The strong Indian sides were ruthless in their approach throughout and dismissed most of their opponents facing little or no resistance. On Monday, it was all ‘India versus Sri Lanka’ in the finals and the hosts obliged the capacity crowd with clean sweep in both men’s and women’s team events. For the men, Kidambi Srikanth went up against Buwanaka Goonathileka, who was the first to reach 11 points and threatened to put the Indian to test. However, that was not to be. Combining his smashes well with some net dribbles, Srikanth ensured that the first set ended 21-14. Having squandered his best opportunity to take a lead in the first set, the Lankan shuttler gave it up in the second, going done by the same margin. Sachin Dias, who had impressed one and all, with his show against Pakistan’s Murad Aliq on Sunday, was no match for India’s HS Prannoy who tamed the Sri Lankan 21-13, 21-16 to take India 2-0 up. The doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy then made light work of the Lankan duo of Buwanaka Goonathileka and Sachin Dias to earn India the Gold. In the women’s event, the flawless PV Sindhu gave India the perfect start with a 21-7, 21-5 win over Kavindi Ishadika. However, it was the match between India’s Ruthvika Shivani and Sri Lanka’s Thilini Pramodika that got the crowd going. For the first time in the event, an Indian player looked like dropping a set. Trailing 17- 20 at one point, Shivani seemed to be heading towards a 0-1 deficit. However, the South Asian Games debutant came back strong to take the set 23-21. There was no looking back after that and she clinched the next set 21-13. The doubles pair of PV Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa then completed the formalities by beating the Lankan duo of Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Samathika 21-13, 21-13. Earlier, India went past Pakistan without much fuss in the men’s semifinals beating them 3-0. A dogged Md Irfan matched Srikanth 19-19 in the first set before the Indian took the game 21-19. However, the Indian killed competition soon after taking the next set 21-15. For Ajay Jayaram, the tie against Murad Aliq was devoid of any real challenge as the Indian swept over 21- 11, 21-16. The duo of Manu and Sumeeth then got the better of the Pakistan pair of Kashif Sulhari and Rizwan Azam 21-9, 21-18 in just 25 minutes. The Indian women, meanwhile, had it even easier against Bangladesh in the semis with Sindhu wrapping up the match against Alina in merely 15 minutes. Shivani took a couple of minutes more to beat Dulaly 21-5, 21-6. Sindhu and Ponnappa then romped home 21-11, 21-12 against Brishty and Dulaly. While Bangladesh and Pakistan bagged bronze in the men’s category, Nepal and Bangladesh claimed the bronze medal in the women’s category.