Veer Chotrani's heroic effort after Yash Fadte's brilliant show earlier helped India shock the second seed Malaysia 2-1 and enter the boys' final of the Asian junior team squash championship in Pattaya on Saturday. India will face Pakistan again in the final on Sunday.
It was a strong turnaround from a team that was still nursing its wounds from the defeat againt Pakistan in the pool match. The man who spurned the chance for a win then, Veer, was the hero against Malaysia as he set aside all fancy strokes and played with a fixity of purpose to wear out Muhammad Amir Amirul Bin Azhar over four energy-sapping games, the last one going to 20-18 in the Indian's favour.
Veer again had the benefit of atleast five match-ball situations which slipped away from him but this time around, the Indian held on tight and eventually had the Indian camp witness scenes of joy.
But the boy who set the happy tidings was Yash Fadte, who according to national coacjh Cyrus Poncha “played out of his skin” to down Duncan Lee Yung in three close games and help India to go one up. Utkarsh Baheti next could not sustain the momentum but there was Veer finished off in style.
Earlier the girls settled for the third place in the morning after losing to Malaysia 2-0. Both Aifa Azman and Chan Yiwen were higher ranked players compared to the Indians Sanya Vats and Yoshna Singh. Yoshna was the first to play against Chan followed by Sanya against Aifa. The Malaysians won both matches in straight games.
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