Picture Credit: Twitter
The Indian badminton team continued its dominance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as they beat South Africa 3-0 in the Quarterfinal of the Mixed Team event. It started with the Mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Machimanda Ponappa beating Jarred Elliott and Deidre Jordaan 21-9, 21-11 in the first match. Lakshya Sen then beat Caden Kakora in the second match to give India a 2-0 lead.
Aakarshi Kashyap put the final nail in the coffin as she beat Johanita Scholtz in straight games to help India go 3-0 up. Kashyap looked fluent against Scholtz as she quickly gained an upper hand in the first game and eventually won it 21-11. The Indian shuttler came back with even more intensity in the second game and played some fine rallies to clinch the game 21-16. Kashyap was always a step ahead as she made her move around the court and used her deception to good effect
In the first match, Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy, who had started playing together for less than a year and topped the selections trials to make it to the team, started the proceedings with a facile 21-9 21-11 win over Jarred Elliott and Deidre Jordaan to hand India a 1-0 lead. It was a no contest as the 857th ranked pair looked cluelessly at the booming smashes of Ashwini as the Indian combination took just minutes to end its misery.
World championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen then looked in complete control as he gave a badminton lesson to Caden Kakora, an opponent ranked 355th in the world. The 20-year-old from Almora wrapped up things 21-5 21-6, converting a whopping 16 match points with a whipping body smash to put India 2-0 ahead.
India will next face Singapore, who had returned empty handed from the last edition four years ago and would be eager to prove their mettle this time. Led by world champion Loh Kean Yew, ranked 9th in the world, Singapore have some quality players such as world number 19 Yeo Jia Min who had reached the BWF World Tour Finals last year.