HANGZHOU (China): With their fierce performance, the Indian men’s squash team of Mahesh Mangaonkar, Saurav Ghosal and Abhay Singh clinched a gold medal after defeating Pakistan 2-1 in a high-intensity final of the ongoing 19th Asian Games on Saturday.
With a sheer display of grit and resilience, India dug deep to wrap up the tie and clinch the gold medal, defeating Pakistan 2-1 in the best-of-three final contest.
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In the first match of the tie between arch-rivals, it was Pakistan’s Iqbal who started the game fiercely as he raced off to a 5-1 lead early on over Mahesh Mangaonkar.
Mangaonkar lost in straight games against Iqbal 8-11, 11-3, 11-2. After a competitive first game, in which Mangaonkar was 11-8, Nasir won the next two 11-3, 11-2 to give Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the tie.
In the second match, veteran player Saurav Ghosal turned the tie in India’s favour as he won 11-5, 11-1, 11-3 against Muhammad Asim Khan.
Abhay Singh took a 4-point lead early in the decider match against Pakistan’s Noor Zaman. Abhay walked away with the first game of the all-important final match.
Abhay brought out his acrobatics, diving to reach a couple of shots. Noor Zaman showed off his understanding of the angles, making the most of side walls. Some more amazing athleticism from Abhay was not enough as Zaman levelled the final match at 1 game apiece.
In the fourth game of the match, an unforced error from Zaman brought Abhay right back into it. The 25-year-old gave India the game and took the decider into a decider.
In the decider game, Abhay showed off his understanding of the court and the angles involved to pick up a couple of quick points and go into the lead. The decider saw some fantastic shots, but in the end, it was a massive unforced error from Zaman, who hit the tin again, that gave Abhay the point.
Zaman had two gold medal points but Abhay Singh dug and he dug deep to get four points on the trot again and gave India a gold medal in the final. (ANI)