"We Stuck To Plan": Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty After Indonesia Open Triumph

India's men's doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty created history once again, defeating the second-seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh 21-17, 21-18 to claim India's first-ever BWF Super 1000 World Tour title in the final of the Indonesia Open played in Jakarta on Sunday. The World No 6. Indian pair had faced defeat against the Malaysian pair on eight previous occasions. However, it was their recent historic Asian Championship victory that rekindled hope in themselves and badminton fans across India and the manner they were playing this week.

Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh, the reigning World Champions, couldn't counter the strategy the two Indians had laid out for them.

"In the earlier eight matches against them, we would hold ourselves back, but today we stuck to the plan. We felt they are humans, they are players, and they will also make mistakes. We stuck to the plan right till the end and never really gave them a chance to come back," said Chirag.

"Even in the second game when they took a couple of points, we were like we don't have to hold ourselves back and play safe that would have made the game a little slow and they are good at capitalising on. Am really happy and we really needed this win," he added.

In the first game, the Malaysians shot off to a lead straight away and maintained it till the Indians drew parity at 7-7. And once Rankireddy & Shetty surged ahead on points, Chia and Soh found themselves playing catch-up. The two had ensured enough cushion to see them through in the first game at 21-17.

In the second game, the Malaysian did try to show some resistance in the early stages, but Rankireddy and Chirag looked determined to create history by bagging India's