13th South Asian Games: Indian men's badminton team win gold, women assured of silver
Indian men's badminton team, led by Kidambi Srikanth, expectedly claimed the gold medal after beating Sri Lanka 3-1 in the finals of the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) here on Monday.
Srikanth started the proceedings for the defending champions when he struggled past Dinuka Karunaratne 17-21 21-15 21-11 in the opening match. Siril Verma then gave India a 2-0 lead after his opponent Sachin Dias retired with the scoreline reading 21-17 11-5 in the Indian's favour.
Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, however, suffered a 18-21 21-14 11-21 loss to Sachin and B Tharindu D Dumbukola Goonathilake as Sri Lanka grabbed one point to make it 1-2.
Krishna Prasad Garanga and Dhruv Kapila then completed the win with a 21-14 21-18 win over Karunaratne and Hasitha Chanaka in the second doubles match.
Earlier in the day, the men's team mauled Pakistan 3-0 with doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, singles players Krishna Prasad Garanga and Siril Varma registering easy wins.
While Arun and Sanyam beat