New Delhi:
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa battled past Singaporean duo of Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei in straight-games to become India's first women's doubles pair to win a gold medal in the badminton event of the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.
Second seed Jwala-Ashwini beat top seed Shanti-Lei 21-16 21-19.
Jwala-Ashwini played a superb game of attack and defense to outclass the Singaporean in front of the packed crowd at the Siri Fort complex here.
In a battle of smashes, it was the Indian pair who had the last laugh as they combined powerful smashes with deft net play to notch up their biggest win together.
In the first game, the Indian duo were trailing 0-3 but they soon drew level at 5-5, before moving ahead with a smash from Jwala. Their smashes were too hot to handle for the Singaporeans as they lost plenty of points to eventually see the first game slip.
In the second game also the Indians were trailing 9-11 at the break and a few miss point at the nets meant they trailed further 12-15 but Jwala-Ashwini used drops and smashes to wrest the lead after a controversial decision and soon wrapped up the match in India's favour.