India Enter Thomas Cup Final For The First Time
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
First publised on 2022-05-14 06:41:42
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
In an
exciting semi-final match, the Indian men's team put it across Denmark 3-2 to
enter their first Thomas Cup final in Bangkok yesterday. While the first match
of the rubber was tough as Lakhsya Sen was up against world number one Victor Axelsen
and lost the match 13-21,13-21, India pulled it back in the doubles as
S Rankireddy/C Shetty beat Kim Astrup/M Christiansen
21-18, 21-23, 22-20. Then, India's top player K Srikanth beat world
number three Anders Antonsen 21-18, 12-21, 21-15 to put India in the lead. But
the lead was squandered by the doubles pair of K P Garaga/V G panjala who lost tamely
to A S Rasmussen/F Sogaard 14-21, 13-21. But a brilliant H S Prannoy then
defeated R Gemke 13-21, 21-9, 21-12 to win the rubber for India.
Denmark was
the fancied team as it had world number one Viktor Alexsen and world number
three Anders Antonsen. In contrast, Lakshya Sen is number 9 and K Srikanth is
number 11. Their doubles pairs are also ranked much higher than the Indians.
Further, India had entered the semi-finals after four decades and the Danes
have better experience in absorbing the stress of playing in the last stages of
big tournaments. But the Indians held their nerves and in all matches they won,
came back strongly in the deciding set after the first two ended in a tie. It
was a memorable and historic win for the team.
The way H S
Prannoy played the last match with steely determination even after aggravating
his ankle injury in the first set was praiseworthy. The doctor attended to him at
the courtside and then Prannoy came back strongly in the second and third sets
to seal the rubber for India. The Indian team is at number 9 in the world
rankings. Having beaten Denmark, the number four team in the world in the semi-finals,
it will now take on Indonesia, the number two team and 14-time Thomas Cup
champions. If the Indians display the same form and determination as they did
against Denmark, they might bring the Cup home for the first time.
