With this defeat, India was eliminated from the prestigious Sudirman Cup badminton tournament. India finished third in the group, with Chinese Taipei and Malaysia being the top two teams to advance to the quarter-finals.
India will face Australia in their last Group C game on Wednesday.
Srikanth was too erratic and lost in back-to-back matches in the men’s singles while Sindhu fought back hard in the deciding match after squandering an advantage in the opener to eventually fall to No. 30 in the world. Goh Jin Wei.
It was always going to be a daunting task for Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa to tame the world No. 8 pair of Goh Soon Huat and Lai ShevonJemie and the Indian combination tried before losing 16-21, 17-21 in 35 minutes.
An error-prone Srikanth couldn’t get India’s campaign back on track then, losing 16-21, 11-21 to world No. 8 Lee Zii Jia in a lopsided men’s singles contest as the team was 0-2 down after the first two games.
World No. 12 Sindhu then erased a 2-11 deficit in the third match but couldn’t go the distance, losing 21-14, 10-21, 20-22 to Goh in the women’s singles as the India conceded a 0-3 lead. to Malaysia in the five-match draw.
“It’s a bit disappointing. In the third game, I was leading by 8 points but I came back. To come so close and lose those two points was very disappointing,” Sindhu said.
“The momentum wasn’t there in game two. I was making mistakes no matter what I was playing it was going to the net or out. In game three I should have held a lead from the start. but I gave him a huge lead. There were unforced errors and that made a huge difference.”
Sindhu said she “came into rhythm after a few points” in the decider.
“At 20-20 I felt there should have been a few more rallies. My shots hit my frame and went to midfield and she finished it.
“After 20-all it was 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 a point, there’s a lot of mixed emotions.”
(With PTI inputs)
