India men’s badminton team went down fighting against defending champion China and settled for silver at the Asian Games 2023 on Sunday.
The Indian team started with Lakshya Sen taking the court in a singles match. He beat China’s Shi Yuqi in three games 22-20, 14-21, 21-18. Sen trailed 14-9 at one point in the deciding game but fought back to put India ahead.
The advantage was doubled by Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy who defeated the World No. 2 pair of 21-15, 21-18 in 55 minutes.
China, however, pulled back and won three matches on the trot to defend its title. The turnaround started with Kidambi Srikanth going to Li Shifeng 22-24, 9-21.
The next match, a doubles, was won by the pair of Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi 21-6, 21-15 against Dhruva Kapila and Sai Krishna.
With HS Prannoy out with an injury, Mithun Manjunath took the court for the final contest. He lost to Weng Hongyang.