NAGOYA: It was a tough day at the office for the Indian men's badminton team. The team lost 1-3 against China in the semifinals and had to be content with a bronze medal in the ongoing Asian Games
Singles specialists Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty could not quite replicate their quarterfinal performances and ended up on the losing side. Up against former World No 1 Shi Yu Qi, Lakshya lost 16-21, 18-21 as China, the defending champs, took the lead.
Doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, winners of recent China Masters event, brought the tie on level terms with a straight-game (21-11, 22-20) victory over Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the second match of the day.
However, Indian went behind yet again as Ayush, who had taken a patient approach to pull off a solid win over Japan's Koki Watanabe, lost against Li Shifeng in the second men's singles tie. Ayush did make a bright start and had the lead for the majority of Game 1. However, Li took the game by its throat to snatch the opening game. Clearly deflated, Ayush just couldn't re-focus and find his footing in the second essay. At the end of the 54-minute contest, the score-line read 21-19, 21-13 in Li's favour.
With India trailing 1-2, the onus was on second doubles pairing for Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun to do the rescue act. However, they were playing the chasing game against the combination of He Ji Ting and Liu Yi. The Chinese pair wrapped up the opening game in 25 minutes and had one foot in the finals. But the Indian duo offered stiff resistance, going on to pocket the second game. However, the Indians ran out of steam in the decider and the Chinese pair eventually won 21-16, 17-21, 21-9.
More importantly, the Chinese are now one step away from defending their title.
For India, it's a creditable bronze medal and their focus will now turn towards the individual events.