India’s men’s badminton team etched its name in history by clinching the Thomas Cup title for the first time by defeating 14-time champions Indonesia 3-0 in a one-sided final on Sunday. The world number eight pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty registered a memorable win. Chirag Shetty and his partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were overjoyed after defeating the team of Muhammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjay Sukamuljo. After losing the first game, Chirag and
Satwiksairaj gave India the lead by winning consecutive wins. Chirag Shetty could not control his emotions on the historic victory and was seen celebrating shirtless on the court itself, the video of which is going viral on social media.
The country’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag then came back from adversity to save four match points in the second game to beat the pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Kevin Sanjay Sukamuljo 18-21 23-21 21-19. Made the lead 2-0.
People remembered Sourav Ganguly after seeing the celebration of Chirag Shetty taking off his shirt. A Twitter user compared it to former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s shirtless celebration standing on the balcony of the NatWest Trophy at Lord’s.
A Twitter user wrote, “Just one win away for the title…Long ago we saw Sourav Ganguly shirtless celebration in cricket. Now Chiragshetty did in badminton. No matter what the game “aggression” is constant…
Struggling to find momentum in the knockout stage, Lakshya performed as expected in the most crucial bout as he bounced back from a loss in the first singles match to defeat world No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 8-21 21-17 21- 16 to give India a 1-0 lead.
In the second singles, Srikanth put up a stellar performance to give India a 3-0 victory over Asian Games gold medalist Jonathan Christie 21-15 23-21 in 48 minutes in straight games.