India fail to cross Malaysia hurdle, out of Sudirman Cup

PTI

Suzhou, May 15

Star stuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu suffered contrasting defeats as India were knocked out of the Sudirman Cup after suffering an embarrassing 0-5 loss to Malaysia in their second Group C match here today.

A day after losing 1-4 to Chinese Taipei, India produced yet another listless show against CWG champions Malaysia to bow out of the world mixed team championships in the group stage for the second successive time.

In the last edition at Vantaa, Finland, India couldn’t make it to the knockout stage.

While Srikanth was too erratic in the men’s singles contest, Sindhu showed great fight in the decider after squandering an opening game advantage only to go down in the end to world No. 30 Goh Jin Wei.

It was always going to be a tough ask of Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa to outwit the world No. 8 pair of Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie. The Indians gave it their best before losing 16-21 17-21 in 35 minutes.

An error-prone Srikanth then couldn’t get India’s campaign back on track, going down 16-21 11-21 to world No. 8 Lee Zii Jia in a lopsided contest.

World No. 12 Sindhu then erased a 2-11 deficit in the third game but failed to go the distance, losing 21-14 10-21 20-22 to Goh as India conceded a 0-3 lead to Malaysia in the five-match tie.

“It is a bit disappointing. In the third game, I was trailing by 8 points but I came back. Coming so close and losing those two points was very disappointing,” Sindhu said. “The momentum was not there in the second game. I was making mistakes, whatever I was playing, it was going to the net or out. In the third game, I should have maintained a lead from start but I gave her a huge lead. There were unforced errors and it made a huge difference.”

Following the loss, India finished third in the group while Chinese Taipei and Malaysia ended as the top two teams and qualified for the quarterfinals. India will take on Australia tomorrow.

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