The women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand pulled off a brilliant victory against French Open champions Tan Pearly and Thinaah Muralitharan 23-21, 21-15 to help India beat Malaysia 3-1 in their last Group B tie of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships in Dubai on Thursday.
The victory helped India top Group B. The Indian girls were trailing in the first game, before they saved a game point to get the better of the Commonwealth Games gold medallists. Tan and Thinaah have also won the Swiss Open last year. Earlier, HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu won their matches while the men's doubles combine of Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila lost to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 16-21, 10-21. Prannoy, who started the proceedings for India, pulled of a hard-fought 18-21, 21-13, 25-23 victory against Lee Zii Jia. The Indian lost the first game but bounced back in style to take the second.
In the decider, Prannoy was up 11-7 at one stage before the former All England champion made a comeback. It was a see-saw battle but Prannoy managed to prevail. However, Sindhu faced no such problems as she made short work of Ling Ching Wong 21-13, 21-17. The mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto play Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei.
