Satwik-Chirag, Lakshya finish runners-up at Hong Kong Open
Hong Kong, Sep 14 (PTI): India squandered a golden opportunity to return with two titles as both Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty signed off with runner-up finishes at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 here on Sunday.
Lakshya could not blunt the attack of world No. 4 Li Shi Feng and went down 15-21 12-21 in a rather sedate men's singles final.
"It's been a good week, especially coming back from World Championships where things didn't go as planned.(For) three to four weeks, we (have) put in a good work. (A) lot of positives to take from this tournament," Lakshya said after the defeat in the final.
"(I) just need to believe in myself more. I need to keep the same from day one what I was doing, the process," he added.
Satwik and Chirag, who bagged a second successive World Championships bronze last month, let go of a one-game advantage before losing 21-19 14-21 17-21 to China's Olympic silver medallists Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in a tense 61-minute men's doubles summit clash.
"Yeah, obviously feels good. Been a good week, especially after the world championships a week later and here we are playing a final. Feels good," Chirag said.
"You would want to go and win that title but I think, credit to them, they played well. There's always a next time and overall happy with the performance."
For Lakshya, it was his first final since the Syed Modi Super 300 last November, but he could not match his familiar foe Li, against whom he was playing for the 14th time in a rivalry dating back to their junior days.
The Indian held a slender 7-6 edge in the head-to-head, but the Chinese has dominated this season with wins at both the All England and China Open.
The 2021 World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya made a brisk start in the opening game, surging to a 4-0 lead before Li found his rhythm with sharp body attacks and flat exchanges to close in at 6-7. The Chinese drew level at 8-8 with an athletic net kill and then reeled off five straight points with a mix of tight net play and steep smashes to take control at 14-10.
Lakshya tried to wrest back the front court but miscued at crucial moments as Li moved ahead 19-15. The Chinese then unleashed a jump cross-court smash to pocket the opener 21-15.
Playing with the drift in the second game, Lakshya again started brightly at 4-1, only for Li to claw back with measured rallies. Errors at the net and a wide smash saw the Indian trail 7-4, and despite producing some sharp defensive strokes to reduce the deficit to 9-12, he was unable to blunt Li's relentless attack.
The world No. 4 kept up the pressure, surged to 15-9, and eventually grabbed eight match points before sealing it with another deft cross-court net dribble.
For Satwik and Chirag, it was their first final appearance in 16 months since winning the Thailand Open, and the loss ended their perfect record in Super 500 finals, having won all four they had contested earlier.
The Indians, who have reached six semifinals this season, had a 3-6 head-to-head record against Liang and Wang coming into the match. They had beaten them at the World Championships in Paris.
However, Satwik and Chirag failed to sustain the momentum after pocketing the opener and, having conceded an inexplicable 2-11 deficit in the decider, were left chasing the game.
"I think the shuttles were a bit fast. They were quite good at the 3-4 strokes. Put us under a lot of pressure in the first 4-5 strokes because they were retrieving quite hard.
"So I think we could have better planned in the second set, especially the third set as well. In the first game we countered it quite well, kept it low, but we weren't able to do that in the second and third."
The opening game was a thriller, with Chirag unleashing booming smashes to erase an early deficit and give India a slender lead at the interval. The Chinese fought back to nose ahead, but Satwik’s thunderous smash and a precision serve from Chirag sealed the game 21-19.
Liang and Wang, however, wrested back control in the second, racing to an 8-2 lead and maintaining their dominance with sharp front-court play and powerful smashes. Despite a brief Indian recovery, errors at the net proved costly as the Chinese levelled the contest.
The decider saw Liang and Wang storm to a 5-0 start and extend it to 11-2 at the break, capitalising on Indian lapses in coordination. Satwik and Chirag saved three match points in a late fightback but eventually faltered with a wide return, allowing the Chinese to clinch the title.
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A 99-run loss is unacceptable: Hayden blames batting horror
Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden was scathing about their 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians, blaming a "horror" batting display and poor death bowling for the heavy loss in the IPL.
From being 44/3 in 5.5 overs, MI hammered 73 runs in the last four overs to post a challenging 199/5 here on Monday. In reply, GT were bundled out for 100.
"I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit," the legendary Australian opener told media in the post-match interaction.
"It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada's performance with the ball. so we've got some work to do, definitely."
GT boast a strong batting line-up in Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Shubman Gill (717), and Jos Buttler (538). They have also added New Zealand’s explosive Glenn Phillips in the middle order alongside Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia.
"When you look down at our batting line-up, we've got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the conception of this Gujarat Titans franchise...
"So you can't be sitting here and being happy about, a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!"
The 54-year-old said GT lost the game in the powerplay.
"Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they're coming in with six overs, you know that you're in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play," he said.
Shahrukh (35 off 25 balls) and Tewatia (49 off 42) have not fared well this season and Hayden feels the duo along with Phillips (67 off 54 balls) have been struggling because the top order has been below its best.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips -- his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games," Hayden said.
"However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion's share of the batting. We shouldn't be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for."
Hayden said GT has an aggressive and adaptable unit but their execution fell apart on the day.
"We are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're an adaptive batting unit. ...they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
It was poorly executed bowling effort
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Hayden also pointed to poor execution in the death overs.
"I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
"When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a 'horror story' -- 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance... It was purely an executional thing."
He added that GT were below par with the ball on a surface that didn’t fully justify the high total.
"We're very average with the ball, firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175-type wicket.
"When you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it's a 200-wicket for the loss of five batters. That's been its winning first-inning score, and today it wasn't that wicket (199/5)... It was visible that it had cracks in it. It was visible that it was up and down.
"So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance. It wasn't a cookie-cutter type performance. It was a dominant performance down the ground. He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision."
Hayden said the chase was still within reach but poor shot selection proved costly.
"And when you reflect on our own batting, we had one side of the ground that was a little more inaccessible than the other, and we lost, what, three wickets into the bigger side of that boundary.
"And it wasn't an impossible total. 200 still is a total that I would back our three world-class players at the top of the order to etch into that a bit more and then allow our more sort of game players. An opportunity to set out their stalls and bat deep into the innings."
