Badminton Asia Team Championships: Indian Men Breeze Through Hong Kong 4-1 in Opening Tie

The Indian shuttlers are on a roll today, as the Indian Men’s Team followed suit after the women and put away Hong Kong 4-1 with ease to move on to the next stages of the Badminton Asia Team Championships.

Once again, the Indian contingent sent out their leader, HS Prannoy for the first encounter, but the World No. 7 could not find his way out of a rut as Ng Ka Long Angus put away the wily Indian in two straight sets of 21-18, 21-14 to secure the first point for Hong Kong.

Prannoy’s stumble though would prove to be the only hiccup for in an otherwise dominant showing from the Men’s Team, who went on to sweep the rest of the opposition away in four straight games to clinch the tie 4-1 for India.

Following Prannoy was the unstoppable Satwik-Chirag duo, who ran riot over the opposition pair of Lui-Yeung and dismissed the Hong Kong duo in two straight sets of 21-16, 21-11.

Lakshya Sen, who was up next, followed suit, dismantling Chan Yin Chak with ease in two sets of 21-14, 21-9 to make way for the next match-up.

Down 1-2, and in need of a win to keep themselves alive, Hong Kong’s hopes rested on the abilities of the pair of Chow-Hung.

But, despite their best efforts, nothing could stop the Indian pair of Arjun-Dhruv Kapila, who capitalized on the momentum and put away Hong Kong for good in sets of 21-12, 21-7 to seal the deal for India as they took an unassailable 3-1 lead.

It was merely a formality that turned into the icing on the cake for India, as in the last game of the tie, India’s Kidambi Srikanth took to Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan and put him away 21-14 21-18, to end the tie on a high note for the Indians.