Chaliha, George-Shukla shine as India lose a nail-biter to Chinese Taipei at Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships

New Delhi, March 21: Rising star Ashmita Chaliha and the men's doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla emerged victorious but could not save India from going down to Chinese Taipei 2-3 at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships in Hong Kong on Thursday.

With their second consecutive loss in as many days, India failed to progress from Group B and bowed out of the competition.

George and Shukla showed nerves of steel to hold off the World No. 14 pair of Liao Min Chun and Ching Heng for a 21-17, 17-21, 21-14 win. Assam's 19-year-old Chaliha then played beyond her age to get a marathon 21-18, 17-21, 21-19 win in exactly an hour.

With India leading 2-0, World No. 32 Wang Tzu Wei and three-time Indian national champion Sourabh Verma were locked in a gritty contest before the Chinese Taipei ace pulled off a 21-7, 16-21, 23-21 victory.

It motivated the women's doubles and mixed doubles teams of the Taipei squad who did not even drop a game to complete the win. While the women's doubles pair of Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun beat Arathi Sara Sunil and Rutaparna Panda 21-19, 21-17, the mixed doubles combine of Hsieh Pei Shan and Tseng Min Hao easily dismissed Shikha Gautam and Shlok Ramchandran 21-15, 21-14.

India thus failed to emulate their performance from the last edition in which they had made it to the quarter-finals. Despite not having the top stars, the youngsters showed a lot of promise and this experience would come in handy for them.

Source: Press Release