Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh and Mahesh Mangaonkar triumphed over arch-rivals Pakistan to win gold in the men’s team event of squash at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. This is India’s second squash gold at the Games. The last time it came in the Incheon Games in 2014 when the men’s team beat Malaysia to claim the top prize. It took nine more years for India to bring the gold medal home but it came after a scintillating victory over Pakistan, who traditionally are a strong front in squash.
In a match that went down to the wire, India prevailed over Pakistan 2-1. After Mangaonkar lost the opening match to Nasir Iqbal in straight games, the experienced Saurav Ghosal put India right back into the contest with a powerful win over Muhammad Asim Khan.
The 37-year-old did not let Khan into the match even once. He took the first game 11-5 and maintained his dominance to register a straight-game win by taking the next two games 11-1 and 11-3.
The best match of the final was, however, the last encounter between India’s Abhay Singh and Pakistan’s Noor Zaman. After two lopsided affairs, Abhay and Zaman produced a masterclass in the deciding match to provide a photo finish to the gold medal match.
Abhay Singh drew first blood by taking the opening game 11-7 but the 19-year-old Pakistani hit back with consecutive wins by 11-9 and 11-8 to take a 2-1 lead.
Abhay had no option but to win the remaining two games to give India the gold medal and the 25-year-old did exactly that. Despite Zaman showing incredible control and finesse on his backhand, Abhay hung in there to wipe out an early lead in the fourth game and push the final into the decider with an 11-9 win.
Zaman and Abhay went neck-to-neck in the last game. Abhay took consecutive points to stretch his lead to 6-4 but Zaman won the next three points to make it 7-6. The see-saw battle continued before the Pakistani managed to get two match points with a 10-8 lead.
From that high-pressure situation, Abhay brought out the best in him to win four points in a row and finish the match.
