HS Prannoy played like a seasoned Top Ten who lifts his level and brings out the assertive smashes when closing out a game against a lower-ranked opponent. Lakshya Sen played like a fearless sophomore with an impressive freshman year behind him, who he can stub out an upstart and pack him back to oblivion with a searingly one-sided scoreline.
Kidambi Srikanth played like Kidambi Srikanth – the genre involves a generous chunk of errors, an ashen coaching bench that has horror writ large on their faces, a legion of followers questioning their life-choices, cursing their favourite shuttle player and in poor cardiac health. And it involves Srikanth playing some of badminton’s most beautiful strokes as if none of these things are happening around him, that make the whole torture endurable.
On Saturday, he bounced back to beat little-known Korean Cho Geonyeop 12-21, 21-16, 21-14 to put India into the men’s team badminton gold medal match at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Not many trust Srikanth to beat a World No.169, such is the long litany of his losses against obscure players. But playing a deciding match for a place in the final of the Asian Games, knowing he’d have to carry the burdensome guilt of putting gold out of India’s reach all his life, Srikanth backed himself. And played 21 points of the final game like Kidambi Srikanth of the 2014 vintage, when he left Chinese shores having scalped Lin Dan and had the world’s attention as the most promising 21-year-old.
Srikanth’s game resembles a broken promise now, so Cho wouldn’t be faulted for fancying his chances. The team tie score was 2-2; both singles to India, both doubles to Korea. The lack of faith in Srikanth might be a tad harsh, given he delivered the second singles wins in the 2022 Thomas Cup. But in Saturday’s semifinals, he promptly lost the opener 21-12. This broken tape includes smashes whacked wide, net dribbles deathknelled into the meshing and against Cho, a flank defence of the Korean’s hits that was non-existent.
Perhaps it was the repeated sight of Cho charging the net for the scything cross-kill follow-up – a mirror image of what Srikanth plays – that he felt the copyright of his patent shot being infringed, which stirred him awake. He first wanted the umpire to penalise Cho for clipping the net. But eventually, his ego steered him towards playing that gorgeous net stomp of his own.
Starting the second game, Srikanth tethered his attack to the plausible and cut down on reckless errors to bag a lead. His net accuracy improved, the defensive resilience in long rallies got sturdier, and he looked like someone who would give himself a chance in the rally to play his wonderful strokes, by staying alive in it.
Cho’s resolve broke in both the second and third games, when Srikanth expanded the lead. But it was hard work and retrieving before he could charge the net and dangle the dribble and scoop with the fist facing upwards, the shuttle perfectly hairpinning over the tape. Srikanth can lord over the net, it’s the sign of his confidence. But he allowed a lot of imperfections and warts in his game to be magnified before he prevailed.
No trouble for Lakshya
Much of the chatter around Asian Games badminton is about why Srikanth will play the individual event, and why not Sen who lost a fair trial to the former. Sen was a picture of perfection, downing Lee Yungyu 21-7, 21-9 to put India 2-1 ahead and offer a contrast to Srikanth. Sen literally had time on his hands to choose a spot to land his round-the-head smashes, as he rendered Lee immobile. The Korean had come into the tie as a giant-killer, claiming Tze Yong and Jonatan Christie, to send out Malaysia and Indonesia. Sen couldn’t be bothered, as his attack tied a strangely unmoving Lee in tangles.
भास्कर अपडेट्स: कोलकाता के परफ्यूम गोदाम में आग लगी, दमकल की 15 गाड़ियां मौके पर
Things got dramatic because Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down 21-13, 26-24 to world champs Seo-Kang, as India stared at a 1-1 scoreline, knowing doubles wasn’t yielding a point on the day. Dhruv-Arjun couldn’t win the second doubles making it 2-2. Korea prides itself on staying competitive in team events with two assured doubles points, where their singles exponents play out of their skins and win them the third point. And in four of the five matches, their shuttlers seriously troubled Indians.
Prannoy too had lost the opening game like Srikanth against Jeon Hyeok Jin, but he’s known to get a read on opponents in the opener, and then dissect them clinically, as he did to win 18-21, 21-16, 21-19.
Literally hitting a higher gear and putting more shoulder power in his smashes, he ambushed Jeon. But Prannoy can be depended upon to raise his game at the clutch. He would give India a 1-0 start after Kaala Chashma and Dangal blared out welcoming India. No music accompanied Srikanth’s stop-start game, and Gopichand looked like he would shred Srikanth if this cost India a final. Srikanth, grooving to his own jarring beats, won amidst all his imperfections.
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