The tensions hadn't really hit home when India's Mahesh Mangaonkar argued with the referee over points he thought were contentious in the opening set, Pakistan's Muhammad Asim Khan continued blocking of Saurav Ghosal's path during drop shots or when a frowning Noor Zaman glared at Abhay Singh after a collision left the former sprawled. These were just the after-splinters of an earlier skirmish.
The seeds, high-yield variety, for a grudge match had been sown three days ago when India had lost an ill-tempered group stage encounter 1-2 to Pakistan. Much before the two teams faced off in the men's team squash final on Saturday, there was a war of words between players of either side already buzzing on social media. And, in Abhay's own words, those were not friendly banter but jibes targeting the nationalities. It was India v Pakistan after all, an India v Pakistan of old, the ones we once relished, the sulphur of the gunpowder that you could smell in the air even before the first salvo was fired.
So, it was natural for players from both sides to turn up for Saturday's summit clash charged up emotionally. In the end, it was the Indian trio of Mahesh, Saurav and Abhay who kept their frayed nerves in check, didn't allow the ambient drama overwhelm them completely, even slip in the thrill of revenge avenged, to prevail over Pakistan 2-1 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller and claim a sensational Asian Games gold.
This was the country's second-ever gold in squash at the Asian Games - the previous one was also won by the men's team comprising Saurav, Mahesh and Harinder Pal Sandhu at Incheon 2014.
In the final, it all boiled down to the deciding set between Chennai-boy Abhay and Islamabad-born Zaman after Mangaonkar went down to Nasir Iqbal 0-3 (8-11, 3-11, 2-11) in just 13 minutes before Saurav brought India back into contention with a 3-0 (11-5, 11-1, 11-3) drubbing of Asim Khan.
With the two teams locked at one-all, it was left to Abhay and Zaman to fight out the biggest sporting battle of their lives, an Asiad gold and history at stake. Kicking off the enticing duel, it was Abhay who earned the first bragging rights by pocketing the opening game 11-7 in a hard-fought fashion before losing the next two 9-11, 8-11.
Trailing, hopes hanging by a thread, it invited a long pep-talk between Abhay, senior pro Saurav and squash team's foreign coach Christopher Walker between the third and fourth games to fire Abhay up. It also so helped that a new racket ball was introduced after the one in play became soft and spongy.
Abhay, despite being under great pressure, pocketed the fourth game after trailing 6-8 to level the scores.
In the decider, both hit some amazing cross-court shots and tantalizing drops and engaged each other in long rallies to enthrall a local partisan crowd that favoured Pakistan, with the little - but loud - cheer for Abhay coming from the Indian bench.
If a squash final mirrored the region's geopolitical equations, this was it. The Chinese spectators waved Pakistan's flags and cheered every point earned. There, inside the glass cage, Abhay and Zaman breathed down each other's necks for a good part, before the latter pulled away with a two-point lead to be just one shot away from landing Pakistan its first gold in 25 years. But Abhay being Abhay, would have none of it. He made a sensational comeback to not only save two gold medal match points and make it 10-all but showed nerves of steel under immense pressure to clinch the most important 11th point with a drop shot that settled the tie in India's favour.
"I didn't play badly today. Neither did he. We really went at each other," Abhay would say later.
The promising Zaman, hailing from pedigree - grandfather Qamar was a legend of the game in the 1970's, even winning the British Open in 1975 - could not take it and broke down after the 64-minute marathon.
"The only thing I was thinking at 10-8 was how did I get here, because at one-all and 7-4 up, I thought I had the upper hand. And I let that slip…" Abhay would reflect upon a familiar malaise.
"It's something that's not going too well. I take lead in the middle of the game and then I let it slip, happening over and over. Today, I got away with it. At 10-8 down, in your head you have lost. It's tough for me to explain. I was sort of, 'will play one point at a time' but had the confidence in me." The pressure off, Abhay was talking as if on autopilot, but he remembered to make an announcement for frequent flier Saurav.
"There was a fair amount of noise three nights ago and I am pretty sure I won't hear anything now. There was a lot of talk from the other team … some on social media. I am looking forward to some from my side. There was no banter, there were proper one-sided jabs. I would like to credit Saurav here. He has been to six Asian Games and has been on my case night after night. I am an excited 25-year-old, I go on social media after matches. Saurav just told me to shut the noise, which is what I did," he admitted.
Things were once not going well for Abhay. The game was good as given up two years ago. "Two points away from repaying everything that my parents and coaches have done for me, I couldn't have let the opportunity slip," he said.
Saurav said, "I told all of them last night 'win or loss is not in our control - what we can control is the effort we put in and how hard we dig in'. Abhay was digging in as much as he could. Had we lost we would not have regretted any of the effort."
