India went down fighting 2-3 to China in the semi-final of Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship 2023 to settle for the bronze medal. Despite the defeat, India created history as they bagged their first medal at the event.
India started off poorly as HS Prannoy lost in straight games to Lei Lan XI in men's singles. The Indian was no match to his Chinese counterpart losing 13-21, 15-21. China took a 1-0 lead.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu too lost her women's singles match to Gao Fang Jie in a hard-fought three-game encounter. Sindhu lost the opening game badly but made a brilliant comeback in the second and went down fighting in the third and final. Sindhu lost 9-21, 21-16, and 18-21. With this win, China doubled its lead to 2-0.
In the third must-win match, Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila helped India make a roaring comeback as the duo defeated the Chinese pair of Ji Ting He and Hao Dong Zhou in the men's doubles encounter in straight games. The Indian pair won 21-19 21-19 to bring their team back into the contest.
In the Women's doubles encounter Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too stepped up to the plate against Tan Ning and Liu Sheng Shu in an exciting three-game encounter. The Treesa-Gayatri duo won the opening game but the Chinese duo fought back and the match went to the third game which the Indian pair won by the skin of their teeth. Treesa-Gayatri won 21-16 13-21 21-19. Their win helped India bounce back from a 0-2 deficit to 2-2 and the semi-final encounter went down to the fifth and final match.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto were up against the Chinese pairing of Zhen Bang Jiang and Ya Xin Wei in Mixed doubles encounter. The Indian pair lost the opening game in a closely contested battle but in the next game, they were completely outplayed. The Indian duo lost 17-21, 13-21 and the Indian team also went down fighting 2-3. This defeat means India had to settle for a bronze medal which is their first in this tournament.
( With inputs from ANI )
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