By Harpal Singh Bedi
In an edge of the seat contest, India rode on Abhay Singh’s heroics to knock out arch-rivals Pakistan 2-1 in the final to win the Gold in team squash event in at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Saturday. The final turned out to be thrilling affair from the start as, Mahesh Mangaonkar lost the opener before Saurav Ghosal levelled the scores. Abhay Singh then chalked out a nerve wrecking win in the decider as he saved two championship points to regain the titlel after a gap of nine years.
Intrestingly India had also lost 1-2 to Pakistan in the group stage earlier this week.
Mahesh Mangaonkar opened the proceedings for India but struggled against Nasir Iqbal and went down 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-2) in just 11 minutes.
Saurav Ghosal then drew the level with a straight-set win in the second match. The Indian trailed in the initial stages of his match but rallied back to beat Muhammad Asim Khan 3-0 (11-5, 11-1, 11-3) and kept India in the hunt.
In an enthralling decider, Abhay Singh won the first game before losing the next two. The Indian , however, dug deep to beat Noor Zaman 3-2 (11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 12-10) to clinch the tie in his team’s favour. The 25-year-old saved two championship points in the deciding game to deny Pakistan the top podium finish.
This was India’s second-ever gold medal in squash at the Asian Games. The previous one was also won by the men’s team – at Incheon 2014. Saurav Ghosal and Mahesh Mangaonkar were also a part of the champion team from Incheon.
On way to the final, India registered a hard-fought 2-0 victory over 2018 champions Malaysia in the semi-finals. They made the knockouts after finishing second behind Pakistan in Pool A. Only the top two teams from each pool progressed to the last-four.
India had finished with a bronze medal at the 2018 Jakarta Games in Indonesia.
The women’s team ended its Hangzhou squash campaign with a bronze medal after losing to Hong Kong China in the semi-finals on Friday.
Squash players will next be in action in the singles and mixed doubles events which start on Sunday