Asian Games 2023: Indian men's squash team thumps Malaysia to reach final

India will next face arch-rivals Pakistan in the final.

The Indian men's squash team defeated Malaysia, the 2018 Asian Games gold medalists 2-0 to reach the final of the men's team event and booked a clash with arch-rivals Pakistan. They lost to Pakistan in the group stage earlier (1-2). Saurav Goshal won the match 3-0, while Abhay Singh and Mahesh Mangaokar lost 1-3. This time they would like to reverse the result in their favour and would want to clinch the gold which they lost in 2018.

India started the proceedings in the semi-final with Abhay Singh. He played some brilliant squash and defeated Bin Bahtiar Muhammad Addeen Idrakie of Malaysia 3-1 (11-3, 12-10,9-11,11-6). Abhay, who was WR 69 started with a comfortable first game win over WR 63 as he wrapped the first game 11-3. He faced a little difficulty in the second but managed to close it. He lost the third game but won the fourth game with ease to give India a winning start.

The face of Indian squash Saurav Ghosal sealed the deal for India after winning his match 3-1(11-8,11-6,10-12,11-3) against Ng Eain Yow to allow India to better their medal colour from the last edition, where they finished with bronze losing to Hongkong (0-2). Saurav Goshal started with a bang and sealed the first two games easily. He was leading in the third, but the Malaysians saved two match points and took the third game from 8-10 down to 12-10. The veteran then used his experience in the fourth game to win it 11-3.

On the other hand, the Indian women's team went down fighting to Hong Kong 1-2 and had to settle for bronze. They won the silver last time around, but this time they could only manage the bronze medal. India's No. 1 Tanvi Khanna started for India but was of no match to Hong Kong's Chan Sin Yuk as she lost 0-3.

Indian squash legend Joshna Chinappa then won her match 3-2 and kept India in the game. However, Anahat Singh lost the third match (0-3) and India lost the tie. Anahat, despite losing has shown promise. She even came back from 2-10 down to save eight match points.