Ashmita Chaliha to face Gayatri in badminton final at 13th SAG

Pokhara: Indian shuttlers Ashmita Chaliha and Gayatri Gopichand registered convincing victories in their respective semi-finals on Thursday to set up an all-Indian summit clash in the womens singles category at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) here.

While, the Assam girl top seed Ashmita thrashed her Sri Lankan opponent Achini Ratnasiri 21-5, 21-7, Gayatri also had an easy task against Dilmi Dias of Sri Lanka during a 21-17, 21-14 win.

The men's singles semi-finals also saw India's dominance as Aryaman Tondon and Siril Verma set up a final against each other after winning their semi-final matches. Top-seeded Siril beat Sri Lanka's Dinuka Karunaratne 21-9, 21-12 in straight sets.

However, Aryaman had to fight hard during his 21-18, 14-21, 21-18 win against second seed Nepal's Ratnajith Tamang.

In the men's doubles semi-final, Krishna Garaga and Dhruv Kapila notched up an easy 21-15, 21-7 win against the Pakistani pair of Mohommed Atique and Raja Mohommed Hasnin. The Indian pair will now face Sri Lanka's S. Dias Angoda Vidanalage and B. Tharindu Dullew.

However, India's challenge came to an end in the women's doubles category after both the pairs, Kuhoo Garg-Anoushka Parikh and Meghana Jakkampudi-N Sikki Reddy, lost in the last 4 clash. Khoo and Anoushka went down fighting against Sri Lanka's Achini Ratnasiri and Upuli Samanthika Weerasinghe 21-10, 21-18 while Meghana and Sikki Reddy lost to top-seeded Sri Lankan pair of Thilini Hendehewa-K Sirimannage 21-14, 21-18.

In the mixed-doubles, Dhruv and Meghana entered the final after the top-seeded Indian pair defeated Nepal's Bikash Shresta and Anu Maya Rai 21-14, 21-13.

All the final matches will take place here on Friday. IANS

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