CWG 2022: Badminton: India beat Australia in the final league match of mixed team event

Birmingham, July 31: The Indian badminton team headed into the competition with a lot of expectations on their shoulders. And true to their form, the shuttlers didn’t disappoint on Saturday as they downed Australia 4-1.

After a 5-0 win over Pakistan on the first day of the 2022 Birmingham Games, the Indian shuttlers put up another solid show as they took an unassailable 3-0 lead over Australia. Already through to the quarterfinals, defending champions India continued their rampaging run as they beat Australia in their final group A match of mixed team competition at the Commonwealth Games.

After blanking Pakistan, India yet again were by far the better team on display on the second day as they outclassed Sri Lanka 5-0 first and then beat Australia to top the group on way to the quarterfinals.

World championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth started the proceedings for India against Australia, beating Lin Xiang Ying 21-14 21-13 in a lop-sided contest.

With India taking a 1-0 lead, it was star shuttler PV Sindhu who was up next. The two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu then trounced Chen Wendy Hsuan-Yu 21-10 21-12 to hand India a 2-0 lead.

In the first doubles clash of the tie, Sumeeth Reddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Tran Hoang Pham and Jack Yu 21-16 21-19 to give India an unassailable 3-0 lead. While India claimed the top spot, Sri Lanka are currently in second place in group A.

In the fourth match, with the win already on their pocket India lost the tie to Australia. Australia registered their first and only win as Indian pair Gayatri and Treesa fell to a 13-21, 19-21 loss to Hsuan Yu and Gronya S.

In their final match in the mixed doubles tie, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sumeeth Reddy handed Ying Xiang Lin and Gronya Somerville of Australia a 21-14, 21-11 defeat. With the win, India wrapped up a 4-1 win over Australia.