Indian sports fans had plenty to cheer for over a week as Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Indian cricket and hockey teams were out-performing to be world beaters.
Sindhu got over her self-doubts to win a major title by beating all those who have been harassing her for long to win the season-ending World Badminton Tour Finals.
The cricket team could not consolidate the 1-0 lead in the four-Test series against Australia by losing the second Test at Perth while the hockey team was left with the consolation of drawing their pool match 2-2 with eventual winners Belgium and losing 1-2 to the other finalists the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
For over a year Sindhu had not won a championship and she was out of the top five in the rankings. She was also dogged by the mental block of having not beaten World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying after her victory over the Chine Taipei girl at the Rio Olympics two years ago. During this period, she was beaten by her six times. Finally, she showed amazing court craft to go with her determination in overcoming Tai Tzu in the Group of Death where she also had to deal with the doggedly defensive Japanese Akane Yamaguchi who had beaten the Indian in the last year’s final.Once she was through with the top two players of the world, Sindhu looked more comfortable in beating another sticky customer, Ratanchok Intanon of Thailand, in the semis before settling a score with another Japanese Nozomi Okuhara who had beaten her in the World Championships final last year.
Sindhu also avenged her loss against Tai Tzu at the Jakarta Asian Games final. She was also the beaten finalist to Spaniard Carlina Marin at the world championships. These defeats raised doubts about her temperament.To add to her woes, she found it difficult to cope with the smart play of Saina Nehwal, losing to her twice, at the nationals and at the Commonwealth Games.One big difference in her clashes with the top players is she could sort out Yamaguchi, beating her five times since her last loss whereas she had no clue as to what to do with Tai Tzu for such a long time.
After beating Tai Tzu, Sindhu said she was prepared to play her again in the final, but that did not happen as the world’s top shuttler failed to make it. Whether it was just to psyche herself up or to announce a change in her game plan, Sindhu did say before the event in Guangzhou that she was well-drilled to win the championship this time.This long-awaited victory should be the turning point in Sindhu’s run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, beginning with the 2019 calendar.
The Indian cricket team may have lost the second Test at the brand new Perth Stadium, but it was the Australians who thought of declaring their second innings to protect their bowlers from the fiery Indian pacers, something Bishan Bedi did in 1976 at Kingston, Jamaica. (IANS)
