Asia Mixed Team C'ships: Indian shuttlers squander good start to lose against Chinese Taipei

 India crashed out of the Asia Mixed Team badminton Championships after losing 2-3 to Chinese Taipei, despite some brilliant performances by rising star Ashmita Chaliha and men's doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla here Thursday.

Ashmita and George-Shukla emerged victorious in the first two matches to give India a 2-0 lead in the five-match tie but defeats in the next three matches meant India failed to progress from Group B.
India had suffered a defeat to Singapore by an identical scoreline in their opening Group B match. With this win, a resilient Taipei booked their quarter-final berth.
George and Shukla showed nerves of steel to hold off the World No. 14 pair of Liao Min Chun and Ching Heng for a 21-17, 17-21, 21-14 win.

Assam's 19-year-old Chaliha then played beyond her age to get a marathon 21-18, 17-21, 21-19 win in exactly an hour. With India leading 2-0, World No. 32 Wang Tzu Wei and three-time Indian national champion Sourabh Verma were locked in a gritty contest before the Chinese Taipei shuttler pulled off a 21-7, 16-21, 23-21 victory.

It motivated the women's doubles and mixed doubles teams of the Taipei squad who did not even drop a game to complete the win. While the women's doubles pair of Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun beat Arathi Sara Sunil and Rutaparna Panda 21-19, 21-17, the mixed doubles combine of Hsieh Pei Shan and Tseng Min Hao easily dismissed Shikha Gautam and Shlok Ramchandran 21-15, 21-14.

India thus failed to emulate their performance from the last edition in which they had made it to the quarter-finals.