Touted to be the favourite, India, the second seed, was outplayed by Malaysia, the fourth seed, 0-5 in the semifinals of the Squash World Cup at the Express Avenue Mall here on Friday. In the final on Saturday, Malaysia will clash with Egypt, which drubbed Japan 6-0 in the other semifinal. India had to be content with a bronze (shared with Japan).
Surprisingly, India lost all its three matches to Malaysia when it was believed that based on rankings and form, India would indeed prevail quite comfortably.
Malaysia, for its part, played an outstanding game overall, overcoming the underdog tag with ridiculous ease.
Full credit to the three Malaysian players, Ong Sai Hung, Aira Azman and Darren Pragasam, who just reveled in the pressure conditions.
Ong Sai Hung might be ranked a low 149 in the world compared to Abhay Singh’s 62, but there was nothing to show it on court. Ong proved superior in all aspects when it came to crunch situations.
In the fifth and deciding game at 6-6, Abhay was deceived by a wonderful deceptive drop by Ong from the backcourt.
Joshna couldn’t do a repeat of what she accomplished on Thursday in the second match. For she was up against an immensely talented 18-year-old Aira Azman, ranked 55 in the world. Azman proved to be superior though Joshna, ranked 72, fought hard to win the third game.
Of course, there here were quite a few contentious calls which went against Joshna.
Saurav Ghosal, who incurred a minor knee injury the other day, just couldn’t get his A-game. Darren Pragasam came to court an inspired man. His backhand drops from the backcourt were pure delight.
Earlier in the day, Egypt, the top seed, outplayed Japan 6-0, proving why it’s called the squash powerhouse.
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