CWG 2014: Jwala-Ashwini stumble at last hurdle, take home silver in badminton women's doubles

Jwala Gutta (L) and Ashwini Ponnappa

Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta had to settle for silver in badminton women’s doubles at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as they suffered a heartbreaking final loss 21-17, 23-21 against the Malaysian pair of Khei Woon and Vivian Heo in less than 40 minutes.

The celebrated Indian pair thus could not replicate their gold medal winning performance from the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, and fell one step short in Glasgow.

Nothing could separate the two teams in the first game as they were tied at 17-17, but a few nervous errors from Ponnappa and the lack of long rallies saw them lose the opener 17-21.

The Indian team put up a much better performance in the second game, where despite trailing 13-15, they showed great character to win five straight points to go up 18-15. The nerves seemed to be getting the better of the Malaysian duo at that stage as they made numerous errors.

It was the first time the Indians were leading in the second game and went on to garner four game points at 20-16. The match seemed destined to go into the decider, but then a number of unforced errors saw the scores tied at 20-20.

With a sizeable indian crowd cheering for every point, an excellent return from Vivian at 21-21 seemed to all but seal the matter, giving the Indians another game point. But the Malaysians evaded this game point too – the fifth one they had saved – to come up trumps 23-21.

With this match, the Indian contingent has finished its campaign at the CWG, winning 64 medals with 15 of them being gold.