‘Happy with my show, need to be more consistent’

Sydney, June 25

Kidambi Srikanth said he is happy with the performance he delivered against the reigning world champion Chen Long in the summit clash.

“As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have gastroenteritis and have had diarrhoea, so I have not been at my best. Since I made the final I wanted to continue to play as well as I could,” an ecstatic Srikanth said after the victory. “It’s just that I’m not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton and wanted to enjoy the match. Because I missed that period of competitive badminton, I wanted to hang in and play as many matches as possible,” he added.

Throwing light on how the match panned out for him, the 24-year-old said, “The conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match. In all the breaks, I had the advantage, the coach told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match. My attack worked really well.”

The Guntur-born shuttler revealed that he had a psychological edge over his famed opponent after winning the first game. In the second game, he did well to win long rallies which boosted his confidence more.

“There was a long rally early in the second game and after I won that I got more confident. If he had won it he would’ve kept doing it (rallies),” Srikanth explained. “I’m just happy to be doing well for now,” he signed off. 

Rewards for Srikanth

The Badminton Association of India announced a cash reward of Rs. 5 lakh for Kidambi Srikanth. But Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra went one step ahead by awarding him an SUV after a Twitter user urged the business tycoon to do something more for him. “Sir, He (Srikanth) gets only five lakh..That’s nothing compared to cricket, please do something,” @NastreTheMust wrote in his tweet. Mahindra responded by saying he would “personally” hand over a TUV300 automobile to Srikanth.  — Agencies