CHENNAI, July 18:
India rode on a fine performance- after his heroics against Hong Kong- by Kush Kumar to bag third place for the bronze medal upsetting higher ranked England in the team event of the World Junior Squash Championships at Doha today.
According to a communique from national coach Cyrus Poncha to the media here Kush delivered the decisive point for the team in the clash for third place after India lost the semi finals to Egyupt. Kush gave a good start winning the opening match..
Kush had a great start, imposing his fast pace to Richie who was a bit on the back foot. He took two games to get used to that wizardry- great attacks at the front court. But slowly, the English boy lengthened the rallies and got the match to be played at the back.
Kush dropped the third game but came back strongly in the next game. And in that fourth England was twice on game ball, before making two errors as Kush found some excellent width and length to win 13/11.
Mahesh, on paper, had better results this week than his English opponent Ollie.
But Ollie surprised everybody. After his ‘inhibited’ performance against Pakistan, Ollie didn’t have anything to lose today. He went for his game. And it worked. Putting Mahesh completely on the back foot, he was aggressive, displayed some superb squash in the first game for an easy 11/6 win.
Mahesh put the foot on the pedal now and offered a nice challenge (11-0) to his opponent. The third was more balanced, still going the Indian’s way, 11/7.
In the fourth, Ollie was still confident he could threaten Mahesh. The Indian found himself 4/1 down. A bit of nerves notwsithstanding,Mahesh led 8/5, 9/7. A stunning backhand drop shot sent Ollie the wrong way and a tin finished it off 11/7 for the Indian.
The scores:
Richie Fallows bt Kush Kumar 8/11, 8/11, 11/9, 11/13 Ollie Holland bt Mahesh Mangaonkar 11/6, 0/11, 6/11, 7/11. (UNI)
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