The Indian junior badminton team pulled off an amazing performance against the badminton giants Malaysia but failed to advance past the quarterfinals mark of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships. And just like in the last few games, India made a few changes once again in the mixed doubles pairing, similar to their previous games.
This time they opted for the pair of Sanskar Saraswat and Shravani Walekar, and the duo won their match against Kang Khai Xing and Noraqilha Maisarah with scores of 21-16, 13-21, and 21-17. On the other hand, India’s emerging badminton player and senior national runner-up, Tanvi Sharma, performed exceptionally well, defeating Siti Zulaikha in girls’ singles by scores of 21-15, 15-21, and 22-20.
However, the turn around began when Pranay Shettigar lost the opening game against Muhammad Faiq with 15-21, 21-18, and 21-19 scoreline.
Walekar-Kanderi duo also failed to pull off a miracle
Also, Shravani Walekar and Navya Kanderi lost to Bui Ong Xin Yee and Carmen Ting by scores of 16-21, 15-21, and the boys doubles combination of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Arsh Mohammad went down against Kang and Aaron Tai with scores of 18-21, 10-21. Ultimately losing the thriller game with a 2-3 scoreline against Malaysia.
Badminton Association of India Secretary (BAI), Sanjay Mishra, said, ‘I am extremely happy with the way the team fought and came within striking distance of a medal. Some of these youngsters were playing in such a competition for the first time but hardly showed any nerves. I am sure they will come up with a strong showing in the individual events starting two days later.’
