Commonwealth Games 2010: Badminton Roundup

It was agony and ecstacy for the Indian fans at the badminton arena as they witnessed the heartbreaking ouster of Kashyap from the badminton semifinals even as Saina Nehwal and the doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa gave the crowd something to cheer about as they reached the finals of their respective events . The occasion was made all the more important as the who’s who of the political world from Rahul Gandhi to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar were present among the spectators.

Chetan Anand , India’s big hope bowed down to the world No 1 , Lee Chong Wei 11-21,12-21 in just 24 minutes without much of a fight . However in the other semi final , Kashyap was a victim of a wrong refereeing decision at a crucial juncture as he narrowly lost 19-21,21-12,18-21 in a marathon match . With the score tied at 18-18 , a mistake by the referee to grant a point to the English player rather than Kashyap proved very costly for the Indian dreams . The crowd incensed at the decision booed the English player as well as the referee . But it has been a hard tablet to swallow for Kashyap and the crowd who were heartbroken .

However India’s big hope , Saina Nehwal avoided any such controversies as she romped home to a 21-10, 21-17 victory against Susan Egelstaff of Scotland to come closer to her maiden commonwealth games crown . Saina started the match on a nervous note going down 0-4 before she came back strongly to win the set easily . The second set was a closely fought one but Saina never looked like being under pressure and she kept her game and cool to win the match sending the crowd into jubiliation .

However the story of the day was the superb win of the women’s doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa who enthralled the spectators with a 12-21, 21-13, 21-11 win over Australian Tang He Tian and Wilson-Smith Kate in a 47-minute battle. With huge pressure on the duo to win their match following the disappointment in the men’s singles , they gave some relief to the packed crowd to give them a glimmer of hope of winning another gold medal at badminton .