Indian badminton players script history in Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games on Monday as they beat Malaysia to win the gold medal in mixed team event. Led by Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal, India registered a thumping 3-1 victory over Malaysia at Carrara Sports Arena 2. This is first gold medal in badminton for India at CWG 2018 and tenth overall. India’s medal tally is 20 including 10 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze as they firmly remain on the third place at GC 2018 Medal Table and Team Standings. They are only topped by host county Australia with over hundred medals and England also recording over fifty medals.

After defeating unthreatening Mauritius 3-0 in the semi-finals, India continued their winning momentum against Malaysia. Once again it was World No. 2 Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal who shone for the country and bring the shining gold medal home. The first match of Mixed Team Gold Medal Match was the mixed doubles with India’s Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa defeating Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh 21-14, 15-21, 21-15 to give their team 1-0 lead. Srikanth extended India’s lead to 2-0 by defeating Chong Wei Lee 21-17, 21-14.

However, V Shem Goh and Wee Kiong Tan pulled a match back for Malaysia by defeating Indian pair Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty 21-15, 22-20. This brought the scoreline of the final match to 2-1 with India still in the lead. The fourth match saw former world number one and Indian badminton’s poster girl Saina Nehwal against Soniia Cheah.

Unlike her singles counterpart Kidambi Srikant, Saina had to toil hard in the match. It was not a straight sets win for Saina but a win meant the gold dropped in India’s kitty. She defeated her Malaysian opponent 21-11, 19-21, 21-9 to win the women’s singles event and eventually the gold in mixed team event.

Earlier, Indian men’s team scripted a fantastic win in table tennis to clinch gold medal. Led by Sharath Kamal, the table tennis team defeated Nigeria 3-0. On Sunday, women’s table tennis team had also bagged the gold medal. India have won medals in weightlifting, shooting, table tennis and now badminton. Fans look forward to more medals from other sports and disciplines.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 09, 2018 05:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).