Badminton Asia Championships: India maul Malaysia to enter semis

H.S. Prannoy celebrates his 21-12, 22-20 win over Teck Zhi Soo of Malaysia at the Asia Championship in Hyderbad on Friday. (Photo: Deepak Deshpande)

Another day, another match down to the wire. For the second day running, India’s men won a thriller. This time, the win took them into the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Team Champion-ships at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium here, on Friday.

On the day, the hosts defeated Malaysia 3-2 in the quarter-finals to book a clash against Indonesia. Also, by reaching the last-four stage, India have qualified for the Thomas Cup.

Later, in the women’s quarter-finals, India were steamrollered 0-3 by Korea. P.V. Sindhu and the pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost the two opening matches, leaving P.C. Thulasi too much to do. She too crumbled under the pressure as the women’s campaign came to a shuddering halt.

However, in a stroke of luck, the women qualified for the Uber Cup based on their world ranking.

For the second day on the trot, H.S. Prannoy was given the responsibility of seeing India through and once again, he rose to the occasion magnificently. Battling a determined Teck Zhi Soo, Prannoy won 21-12, 22-20 to hand the hosts a nerve-wracking victory.

Keeping his wits in a pressure-cooker situation, Prannoy set about dismantling his opponent in the opening game. Prannoy danced all around the court with deft strokes and powerful smashes to clinch it 21-12.

Teck put up much more of a fight in the second game, and at one point, was tied 18-18 with Prannoy, but the Indian lad powered through to a brilliant win.

“Teck is the kind of player who always goes for the kill, so the chances of his making an error are always high,” Prannoy said after his win. “I just had to keep my cool and coax him into making errors,” her added.

Earlier, Kidambi Srikanth gave India a bright start with a 21-14, 21-15 victory over Zulfladli Zulkiffli. In the doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy stretched the advantage. Malaysia then forced themselves back into tie through Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, who beat Ajay Jayaram 17-21, 21-12, 21-16. Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo then pulled Malaysia level before Prannoy’s finishing act.