Despite skipper K Srikanth's superb win, Indian men surrender tamely to Indonesia in Badminton Asia semi-final

New Delhi: Indian men's team finally ran out of steam in the Badminton Asia Team Championships, losing the semi-finals 1-3 to Indonesia on Saturday at Hyderabad.

Indian captain Kidambi Srikanth provided a perfect start to the five-match tie, beating Tommy Sugiarto in a 59-minute long thriller. World no. 9's 21-14, 23-25, 21-9 victory, however, failed to inpire his Indian team-mates as the Indonesian wrapped the tie winning the next three matches.

After the opening singles match, Indian doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy succumbed to experienced Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 11-21 10-21 in just 23 minutes.

With 1-1, Ajay Jayaram needed to win his singles match against his lower ranked opponent Ginting Anthony to give India the chance, considering the next doubles match will be a tough one for the inexperienced Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar team.

But the world no. 25 Indian submitted rather tamely, losing in straight games (15-21, 20-22) to the unheralded 34th ranked player.

 expected, Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi of Indonesia won the second doubles match 13-21, 21-18, 15-21 to settle the issue. Young Indian pair fought back from a game down, but settled second best in a duel which was decided by experience.

The third singles match and final match of the tie was not required. HS Prannoy was to play Jonatan Christie in the fifth match.

In another semi-final, Japan trounced South Korea 3-0 in to set up title date with Indonesia.

Despite the hear-break, it was historic outing for the Indian team, which had defeated China and Malaysia in the previous round. By virtue playing in the semi-finals, India also won their first ever medal, a bronze, in the competition at least in the last three decades.

In women's semi-finals, Japan and China registered similar 3-0 wins over Thailand and South Korea respectively.

The Indian women's team lost in the quarter finals, 0-3 to South Korea yesterday.