‘Our girls are excellent’

India kept their hopes of winning a firstever gold in Badminton Asia Team Championships after the women shuttlers progressed to their maiden final with a 32 win over twotime former champions Japan in a thrilling semifinal here on SaturdayThe World No 23 pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand World No 53 Ashmita Chaliha and 17yearold Anmol Kharb registered stunning wins in the first doubles and second and deciding singles to take India through to the summit clashAshmita Chaliha and Anmol KharbIndia will face Thailand in the final on Sunday India had won two bronze medals in menrsquos team event in the 2016 and 2020 editions Though Japan were without their World No 4 Akane Yamaguchi the World No 7 pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota and World No 8 combination of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara they were still a formidable side making it tough for IndiaAlso ReadSupernatural for Madras Race Club CupSindhu loses to OhoriReturning from a long injury layoff Sindhu had enjoyed wins against Chinarsquos Han Yue and Hong Kongrsquos Lo Sin Yan Happy but she couldnrsquot produce her best against the lefthanded Aya Ohori going down 1321 2022 in the first singles to peg India backVimal KumarTreesa and Gayatri playing the first doubles dished out a superlative performance to outwit World No 6 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida 2117 1621 2220 as India drew level at 11Up against former world champion Nozomi Okuhara who is currently ranked 20 the lefthanded Ashmita produced an aggressive game using her overhead cross drops and jump smashes to good use to record a shocking 2117 2114 win to hand India a 21 leadWith Tanisha Crasto suffering a niggle Sindhu then paired up with Ashwini Ponnappa but they couldnrsquot get across the World No 11 pair of Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto losing 1421 1121 in 43 minutesAnmol tames NatsukiWith the fivematch rubber evenly poised at 22 Anmol was handed the responsibility of taming World No 29 Natsuki Nidaira and the Indian once again lived up to the expectation claiming a 2114 2118 win in 52 minutes ldquoOur girls are doing magic they were excellent todayrdquo former India coach Vimal Kumar who is with the Indian team in MalaysialdquoI will give a lot of credit to Gayatri and Treesa and also Ashmita for pulling out of the matches It was an outstanding performance from Ashmita she outclassed Okuhara she raised her game to another level Young girl Anmol also showed that we can depend on her going forward When you do well in team championships it shows they can handle pressure and I am really impressed with her This is special moment for Indian badmintonrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever