Women’s doubles pair of Pallikal-Chinappa beat English counterparts in final
Joshana Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal combined brilliantly to clinch gold in the womens doubles final and give India their first squash medal in the Commonwealth Games after the pair outplayed Jenny Duncalf and laura Massaro of England here on Saturday.
The fifth-seeded Indian pair made short work of their English opponents with a 11-6, 11-8 win in the best-of-three game final.
The Indians though looked in some trouble in Game 2 when they trailed 7-2 at one point, but some incredible drop shots from Dipika and Joshana made the win look easy in the end.
Duncalf and Massaro were no match for the absolutely in-sync pair of Joshana and Dipika, who moved rhythmically in the glass show court at the Scotstoun Campus Squash arena.
The English duo played traditional squash with no variety at all and played the doubles match with a ‘singles’ mindset against the Indian players, which seems to have mastered the doubles game.
Duncalf and Massaro had settled for silver in the 2010 edition of the Games in Delhi.
England though took consolation from the fact that Alison Waters and Emma Beddoes thrashed Kasey Brown and Rachael Grinham of Australia to take bronze and keep the nation firmly atop the medals tally.
Joshana admitted that they always respected their opponents and took one game at a time. “We were always taking it one match at a time because all the players are really good. A lot of them have been medallists previously,” said Joshana after the win.
Joshana also spoke about the tough second game and their reluctance to see the match get into the third and final game. “I don’t think we started very strong and they really took advantage of that. They had some great shots and we had a few errors but we really didn’t want to go to a third game and we switched back on,” she added.
Joshana also hopes that this gold will help the sport flourish in India. “Hopefully this will bring more recognition to squash in India. It’s definitely growing leaps and bounds but hopefully now, winning a medal, the government will be that much more excited about the sport as well,” she said.
In the semi-final, Pallikal and Chinappa had defeated Australian combination of Kasey Brown and Rachael Grinham 2-1 (11-9, 7-11, 11-4).