Mumbai: The Indian men and women’s teams romped into the finals of South Asian Games badminton team events at the 12th South Asian Games on Monday and walked away with gold medals in both events with a 3-0 victory against Sri Lanka.
Kidambi Srikanth got off to a good start against Sri Lanka’s No.1 men’s singles – Buwanaka Goonathileka in the first match of the men’s tie, spending 40 minutes to win the first point for India with his 21-14, 21-14 triumph.
In the second men’s singles match, H.S. Prannoy made mincemeat of Sachin Dias of Sri Lanka, defeating him 21-13, 21-16 before the India’s men’s doubles Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy sealed the deal for the Indian team by dismissing Buwanaka Goonathileka & Sachin Dias 21-12, 21-11 in 25 minutes.
The Indian women’s team wasted no time in putting a dominant show against Sri Lanka in the women’s team final. P.V Sindhu gave India a flying start by trashing Kavindi Ishadika Sirimannage of Sri Lanka 21-7, 21-5 in the first women’s singles match.
Ruthvika Shivani then picked up where Sindhu left off and powered over Thilini Pramodika by saving three game points at 17-20 in the first set to eventually take the game 23-21. Shivani then put up an impressive feat of durability to beat the Sri Lankan 21-13 to score the second point for India in the tie.
With Jwala Gutta sitting it out, P.V. Sindhu partnered with Ashwini Ponappa in the women’s doubles to help India bagged the women’s team gold by overcoming Achini Rathnasiri and Upuli Samathika 21-13, 21-13 in 23 minutes.
