KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia redeemed their battered pride by wresting the Commonwealth Games badminton mixed team gold from India with a 3-1 win in a rematch of 2018 final in Birmingham today.
World No 11 women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah turned heroes when they clinched the winning point by defeating Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand 21-18, 21-17 at the National Exhibition Centre.
Malaysia hit India where it hurt most, when world No 42 Ng Tze Yong defied the odds to stun World Championships silver medallist K. Srikanth 21-19, 8-21, 21-16 in the men's singles.
Revenge was certainly sweet for Tze Yong who had lost twice to Srikanth earlier this year, including during the Thomas Cup Finals in Bangkok three months ago. India had then won 3-2 in the last eight before going all the way to capture the world men's team title.
In Birmingham, Malaysia grabbed an early lead through Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik who beat world No 7 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 21-18, 21-15 to make it five wins on the trot.
Malaysia dropped their only point when Goh Jin Wei went down fighting 22-20, 21-17 to 2019 world champion P.V. Sindhu in the women's singles.
Jin Wei gave Sindhu a scare in the opening game when she fought back gallantly from 18-12 down with seven straight points. But Sindhu managed to stop the rot before racing to game point and sealed an early advantage.
The victory marked Malaysia's fourth success in the mixed team event which was introduced in Manchester 2002 to replace the men and women's team events. The other three victorious occasions were in Melbourne 2006, New Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014.
In the Gold Coast four years ago, Malaysia's domination was ended by India who won 3-1.