Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023: India enter quarterfinals as group topper after Malaysia win

Ace shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy shined for India on Thursday as they defeated Malaysia to enter the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships 2023 as group toppers.

India were grouped alongside Malaysia, UAE, Kazakhstan in group B of the championships. They had already registered 5-0 wins over Kazakhistan and UAE earlier and entered into the fixture with a lot of momentum.

The final group B encounter for India started with a singles match between Prannoy and world no.4 Zii Jia Lee. The Indian ace had a tough start to proceedings as he dropped the first game 18-21.

However, Prannoy would then mount a fantastic comeback and took the second one 21-13 to make it 1-1 and push the game into the third one. Both shuttlers battled it out hard but it was the Indian shuttler who emerged victorious in the end with a 25-23 win in the third game. The match lasted for an hour and 10



minutes.

Sindhu had an easier outing on the day as compared to Prannoy as she took on Ling Ching Wong in the women's singles match. The Indian ace defeated her opponent in 34 minutes with a scoreline of 21-13, 21-17 to give India a 2-0 lead in the contest and put them in the driver's seat.

Malaysia would then pull one back as India's doubles pair of Dhruv Kapilla and Chirag Shetty suffered a 16-21, 10-21 defeat to Aaron Chia and Sooh Woi Yik.

However, the contest was finally put to bed when Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stunned Commonwealth Games Champions Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.

The Indian duo defeated their Malaysian counterparts 23-21, 21-15 to give India an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto then put the finishing touches on the win as they defeated Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei 21-19, 19-21 and 21-16 to seal the contest 4-1 in India's favour.