Srikanth suffers shock defeat as India settle for silver in Mixed Team badminton

WEIGHTLIFTER LOVEPREET CLAIMS BRONZE ON CWG DEBUT

BIRMINGHAM: Kidambi Srikanth came up with an underwhelming performance as India succumbed 1-3 to Malaysia and settled for a silver in the mixed team badminton event at the Commonwealth Games here on Tuesday.

Srikanth lost to lowerranked Tze Yong Ng in three games to put the defending champions on the backfoot in the final.

PV Sindhu did what was expected out of her in the women’s singles while the men’s doubles pairing of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in the opening doubles. With the win, Malaysia regained the title they had lost to India four years ago in Gold Coast.

For India to retain gold, a lot depended on the outcome of the men’s doubles tie featuring Rankireddy and Shetty, and the Olympic bronze medallists duo of Teng Fong Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh.

The women’s doubles and mixed doubles were India’s weaker links and the team relied on men’s doubles and the two singles to get the job done.

The opening contest was full of long and winding rallies but Reddy and Shetty lost a majority of them, failing to keep pace with the ultra attacking Malaysian pair.

For a change, the Malaysian crowd made more noise than the Indians, providing a further push to Chia and Soh.

After a tough battle, the Malaysians won 21-18, 21-15 to put their team 1-0 up. In the women’s singles, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu was expected to win comfortably but the 60thranked Goh Jin Wei made life very tough for the world number 7.