India men beat Chi 3-2, women lose 0-5 to Japan

Hyderabad, Feb 19:  India men’s team defeated Chi 3-2 while the women’s team went down 0-5 to Japan in 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 in the men’s category to give the hosts victory. But 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 by posting victories against Singapore on Wednesday.

In the men’s first singles match on Thursday, 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, with the team ending 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.

In the women’s first singles match, Nozomi Okuhara defeated P.V. Sindhu 18-21, 21-12, 21-12, and in the second tie, Sayaka Sato beat P.C. Thulasi 24-22, 21-14 to take 2-0 lead.

In the third women’s singles mtch, Yui Hashimoto of Japan defeated India’s Ruthvika Gadde 23-25, 21-14, 21-14.

Next up in the women’s doubles match, India’s Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponppa were beaten 12-21, 18-21 by Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.

In the second doubles match, Shizuka Matsuo and Mami ito of Japan beat India’s Sikki Reddy and Sindhu 18-21, 21-11, 21-16 to win the tie 5-0. IANS