Birmingham: Malaysia’s 4-year wait for a Commonwealth Games mixed team title ended Tuesday after clutch performances by several Malaysian shuttlers to ultimately beat defending champions India 3-1 for the gold medal.
World No. 6 men’s pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia started the proceeding against World No. 7 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India in the mixed team final.
Chia/Soh didn’t disappoint by overcoming Rankireddy/Shetty 21-18, 21-15 to score the first point for Malaysia.
In the women’s singles match that followed, despite a huge gap in the world ranking, World No. 60 Goh Jin Wei fought to the end, but the World No. 7 PV Sindhu of India proved to be stronger as Sindhu leveled the overall score 1-1 by beating Goh 22-20, 21-17.
Coming into the tournament as an underdog, Malaysia’s World No. 42 Ng Tze Yong showed no fear against India’s World No. 13 Kidambi Srikanth in the men’s singles match. Ng capped his amazing determination and fighting spirit to upset Srikanth 21-19, 6-21, 21-16 in the men’s singles match to give Malaysia an insurmountable 2-1 lead over India and push the final to the fourth match.
After a tight first set, World No. 11 Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan comfortably saw off World No. 38 Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela of India 21-18, 21-17 to clinch the mixed team gold for Malaysia.
The triumph was also sweet revenge for Malaysia as it lost to India in the 2018 edition. Malaysia had previously won the mixed team gold in the 2006, 2010, and 2014 editions.
In the bronze medal contest, Singapore took home the bronze after defeating England 3-0.
