India finishes 7th in World Team Squash
New Delhi: India finished seventh in the Men's World Team Squash Championship after posting a 2-0 win over Malaysia in the 7th-8th position match in Mulhouse, France.
Mahesh Mangaonkar blanked Muhd Asyraf Azan 3-0 while Saurav Ghosal fought back after being two sets down to get the better of Ong Beng Hee 3-2. Mangaonkar won his match 14/12 11/4 11/7 while Ghosal prevailed over his opponent 3-2 6/11 7/11 12/10 11/7 11/9.
Earlier, India lost to Germany in the 5th-8th place play-off with Ghosal and Harinder Pal Sandhu putting up a decent fight in matches that went the full distance.
In the 5th-6th place match, eight-time national champion Ghosal was first up on court against six-time German champion Simon Rosner. Ghosal started well against the world no.12 Simon and raced away with the first game on the back of some aggressive play.
Ghosal continued with his aggression throughout the match, taking chances, playing the volleys and drops. But Simon pounced on the slightest mistake by Ghosal. In an intense battle, where both players had chances to win, Simon won the second, while Ghosal snatched the third leaving the two to battle it out in the fifth and final game.
Ghosal played well but could not stop Simon from getting in front of him, making it incredibly difficult to come up with decisive strokes. Simon packed off Ghosal in the fourth and final game to take the first point for Germany.
Harinder was next on court against Raphael Kandra in a match India needed to win to keep their hopes alive. Harinder matched Raphael stroke for stroke and kept pace with the German all the way but Raphael made the better choices when it came to the crunch, pocketing the first two games 11-9 14-12.
Both played well below their best but Harinder showed glimpses of his ability in taking the next two games in emphatic manner, levelling the match at 2-2.
In the deciding game, Harinder and Raphael yielded no quarter and were locked in a fascinating duel of nerves. Raphael had the last laugh winning the fifth game 14-12 and sealing Germany's progress through 5th-6th place shoot-off against South Africa.
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