Badminton News: India’s star players Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu failed to put on their best game as India lost 0-5 to Malaysia in the second match of Group C of the Mixed Teams Championship in Suzhou, in China on Monday.
With this defeat, India were eliminated from the prestigious 2023 Sudirman Cup badminton tournament. They finished third in the group, with Taiwan and Malaysia ranking among the top two teams to qualify for the quarter-finals.
They then face Australia in their final Group C game on an already undecided Wednesday.
Srikanth was too erratic and lost in consecutive matches in the men’s singles match, while Sindhu struggled to decide after squandering an advantage in the opener to lose to world number 30 Goh Jin Wei.
It will always be a daunting task for Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa to beat world number 8 Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie and the combination did their best before falling 16-21 17-21 in 35 minutes.
The error-prone Srikanth was then unable to get the Indian campaign back on track, losing 16-21, 11-21 to world number 8 Lee Zii Jia in a one-sided men’s singles match as the team subsequently led 0-2. first two games.
World number 12 Sindhu erased a 2-11 deficit in the third match but couldn’t go further, losing 21-14, 10-21, 20-22 to Goh in the women’s singles as India lost 0-5 against Malaysia in five matches. .
“It was a bit disappointing. In the third game I was 8 points down but I came back. To come so close and lose those two points was very disappointing,” Sindhu said.
“The momentum just wasn’t there in the second game. I made mistakes, it didn’t matter what I played, it went to the net or out. In the third game, I should have kept the lead from the start but I gave him a big lead.” . There were unforced errors and they made a big difference.”
Sindhu said she “picked up a rhythm after a few points” in the decider.
“At 20-20, I felt like there should have been more rallies. My shot hit my frame and went into the infield and he finished it.
“After 20-all, it’s anybody’s game because you can make mistakes, there’s a lot of pressure, you’re nervous, you want to keep driving on the pitch, you want to score points, there’s a lot of mixed emotions.”
Tags: India, PV Sindhu, kidambi srikanth, Sudirman Cup 2023
