Saina's victory in vain; India falls to Malaysia

New Delhi, Oct 9: Bitter sweet news greets India from the Delhi Commonwealth Games badminton arena. Even though the country's beloved player, Sania Nehwal won her lone battle, India had to accept 1-3 defeat in the hands of Malaysia.

India's hopes of gold disappeared when mixed doubles star pair Jwala Gutta and V Diju failed to take down Malaysian opponents Ei Hui Chin and Kien Keat Koo. Chin's left handed game proved to be too much for the Indian pair to handle, and they went down 14-21, 21-10, 10-21.

After the mixed doubles defeat, the home crowd sulked as they weighed the possibility of winning the coming bouts. Next up was world number 32 Kashyap who had to take on world number one men's singles player Lee Chong Wei.

While the opening game gave India some hopes of a fight, Chong Wei seemed to be toying with his rival as he quickly took down Kashyap 21-18, 21-7 in 31 minutes.

This is when Saina Nehwal had to walk into the court to play the third rubber of the mixed team final. The crowd cheered for the player but the golden hopes were completely gone.

The world number three, therefore, took this as an opportunity to cheer the supporters back by at least winning her battle. It was a struggle but Saina defeated world number 19 Wong Mew Choo 24-26, 21-17, 21-14.

"I knew it was difficult to come back from 2-0 down. But I wanted to win my match and ensure that we did not go down without a fight," said Saina after the match.

In the men's double, Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar fell to world's best doubles pair, Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan 21-12, 21-19.

At the end of the finals battle, India stood defeated 1-3 against the two-time champions, to settle for silver.

OneIndia News