India scripts history

India comfortably surpassed its previous best of 70 medals, achieved in Jakarta five years ago, as the shuttlers, archers, cricketers, wrestlers, kabaddi and chess players all added to the tally on Saturday

- MIHIR VASAVDA

TO THE BEATS of Dangal, Chirag Satwiksairaj Shetty and Rankireddy shook a leg on the court and the crowd joined them. To celebrate their historic men's doubles gold medal, the two would rip their shirts and fling their racquets into the stands. The fans, mostly Chinese, reciprocated by humming the song, dancing with them and giving the warmest reception any. Indian has received at these Games.

Hangzhou, for that brief moment, seemed like Haryana, until a tiny section of the crowd chanted, "Jiayou, Indo!" Come on, India.

For the entire fortnight, India's athletes have endured hostile surroundings, with the locals supporting anybody but them. In a dramatic turn of events, on the final night the mood changed. Chirag and Satwik, with their powerpacked entertaining brand game, regaled a hard-to-please nation that is so used to watching top quality badminton. So when the Indian pair showed the spectators some love, they got back a lot more. The soon to-be-crowned World No. 1 doubles pair swept the Binjiang Gymnasium off their feet to become the first Indian badminton players to win an Asian Games gold medal, beating South Korea's Choi Solgyu and Kim Won Ho 21-18,21-16.

A badminton gold in China was a cherry on the cake for India, who finished the Asian Games with their best-ever haul of 107 medals that included 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze.