India beat Chi 3-2 in Asian badminton

Hyderabad, Feb 18: India defeated Chi 3-2 in the men's category of the Badminton Asia Team Championships at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and H.S. Prannoy won their respective singles matches to give the hosts victory. India lost the two doubles matches.

India's men's and women's teams have already made it to the quarter-fils of the tourment.

In the first singles match, World No.9 Srikanth outclassed Chi's Houwei Tian 21-11, 21-17. In the second singles World No. 25 Jayaram stunned No.11 Chi's Zhengming Wang 22-20, 15-21, 21-18.

The match between the Jayaram-Wang saw a neck-to-neck clash as the match had excitement right till the end. But the Indian held his nerves to come out victorious against an opponent who is ranked far above him.

In the third match, World No.27 Prannoy, beat low-ranked rival Yuqi Shi 21-14 and 21-10.

India had a disappointing start to the doubles match. As the team ended up on the losing side in both the matches.

India’s Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy were defeated 20-22, 11-21 by Chi's Junhui Li-Zihan Qiu.

In the second doubles match, the Indian pairing of Praav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar were outplayed by Yilv Wang-Wen Zhang 10-21, 18-21. IANS