Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal's Olympic bronze medal overshadowed the high-profile cricket team's one-day series win against Sri Lanka in the media on Sunday. The 4-1 success by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, which lifted the world champions to number two in the rankings behind Australia, would normally have attracted front-page coverage in the cricket-obsessed media.
But the victory was relegated to the inside pages as Nehwal stole the limelight on becoming only the second Indian woman after weightlifter Karnam Malleswari to win an Olympic medal. It did not matter that Nehwal, 22, was fortunate to win the bronze when her Chinese rival Wang Xin, who was leading 21-18, 1-0, pulled out with a leg injury.
"China's groans, Saina's bronze," declared the Hindustan Times on its front page, adding that "it wasn't just luck that got India its third medal".
Wang fell and injured herself, the paper said, because the "scampering around that forced the fall was on account of the incessant pressure the Indian had built up". "Lucky bronze for plucky Saina," said the Times of India, adding that the Indian's superior fitness paid off in the end.
While the cricketers celebrated the series win, team-mates Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, who were not part of the squad in Sri Lanka, posted congratulatory tweets for Nehwal.
Comments
Comments are closed.