Indian men’s team, including Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh and Mahesh
Mangaonkar, won over arch-rivals Pakistan to win gold in the event of squash in
Hangzhou at the Asian Games 2023.
India won its second squash gold at the Games after the Incheon
Games in 2014 when the men’s team beat Malaysia to claim the top prize.
It took nine additional years for Bharat to bring the gold medal
home but it came after a scintillating victory over Pakistan, who traditionally
are a strong front in squash.
Bharat prevailed over Pakistan 2-1. After Mangaonkar lost the
opening match to Nasir Iqbal in straight games, the experienced Saurav Ghosal
put Bharat right back into the contest with a powerful win over Muhammad Asim
Khan.
The 37 years old did not let Khan into the match even once. He took
the first game 11-5 and upheld his dominance to register a straight-game win by
taking the next two games 11-1 and 11-3.
The best match of the final was, however, the last encounter between
Bharat’s Abhay Singh and Pakistan’s Noor Zaman. Later, Abhay and Zaman produced
a masterclass in the deciding match to provide a photo finish to the gold medal
match.
Abhay Singh drew first blood by taking the opening game 11-7 but the
19-year-old Pakistani hit back with consecutive wins by 11-9 and 11-8 to take a
2-1 lead.
Abhay had no option but to win the remaining two games to give Bharat
the gold medal and the 25-year-old did exactly that. Despite Zaman showing
incredible control and finesse on his backhand, Abhay hung in there to wipe out
an early lead in the fourth game and push the final into the decider with an
11-9 win.
Zaman and Abhay went neck-to-neck in the last game. Abhay took
consecutive points to stretch his lead to 6-4 but Zaman won the next three
points to make it 7-6. The see-saw battle continued before the Pakistani
managed to get two match points with a 10-8 lead.
From that high-pressure situation, Abhay brought out the best in
him to win four points in a row and finish the match.
