India confirm first-ever Thomas Cup medal after beating Malaysia 3-2

BANGKOK: India confirmed its first-ever Thomas Cup medal after beating five-time champion Malaysia 3-2 in a thrilling quarterfinal in Bangkok on Thursday.

H S Prannoy beat Leong Jun Hao 21-13, 21-8 in the third and deciding singles after the quarterfinal was tied at 2-2 at the end of both doubles and two singles matches.

India has previously reached the semifinals on three occasions - 1952, 1955 and 1979 - but back then, only finalists were awarded medals. However, this time, India is assured of at least a bronze.

World championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen had lost the opening singles to Lee Zii Jia before Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty brought India back in the tie by winning the first doubles match against Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin.

Kidambi Srikanth won the second singles to give India a 2-1 lead but Aaron Chia and Teo Ee Yi defeated the inexperienced India pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala in the second doubles to send the match to a deciding third singles.

In the opening singles tie, Lakshya failed to convert any of the two game point opportunities in the opening game which he lost 21-23. The second game was more one-sided as Lee quickly built a 7-0 lead before eventually closing it 21-9 to finish the match in 46 minutes.

Satwik and Chirag levelled things up by winning 21-19, 21-15 against Goh and Izzuddin in 41 minutes.

Srikanth comfortably beat Ng Tze Yong 21-11, 21-17 in the second singles in 41 minutes to take India ahead.

However, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala had lost the second doubles 19-21, 17-21 to Chia and Teo in 37 minutes.

On the other hand, Indian women's badminton team suffered a 0-3 thrashing at the hands of Thailand in the quarterfinals of the Uber Cup.

World No. 7 Sindhu was off colour for the second consecutive day as she squandered a game lead to go down 21-18, 17-21, 12-21 against Intanon, ranked eighth, in a 59-minute first women's singles match.

India was down 0-2 when the women's doubles pair of Shruti Mishra and Simran Singhi lost 16-21, 13-21 against the Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.

It was no better for Aakarshi Kashyap, who surrendered 16-21, 11-21 to Pornpawee Chochuwong in the second singles match that lasted 42 minutes. Agencies

IANS

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