In the final day of the Doha WSF Men’s World Junior Team Squash Championship England were up against India.
Unfortunately for England, India claimed their highest-ever finish after upsetting the third seeds and former champions 2/0.
Kush Kumar had a great start, imposing his fast pace and took the first two games. But slowly, Richie Fallows was able to lengthen the rallies, put more weight on the ball, and get the match to be played at the back, allowing him to make the court much bigger.
And, what a finish that was in that 4th, Fallows having 2 game ball, before making two errors, pushed by Kumar finding some excellent width and length as he took the game 13/11.
The Indian camp celebrated that win as the final win, as Mahesh Mangaonkar on paper had better results this week than Ollie Holland.
But, it was Holland who started brightly as he put Mangaonkar completely on the back foot; he was so positive, so aggressive, and displayed some superb squash in the first game, taking it 11/6.
Mangaonkar really put the foot on the pedal in the second and the third also going the Indian’s way 11/7.
In the fourth, Holland was still strongly confident he could threaten Mangaonkar, and it showed. The Indian found himself 4/1 down, and had to give it a big push to get back level and then finished it off 11/7.
“We are all determined to learn from this experience and use it to become better players in the future,” said Richie Fallows after the game.
David Campion added, “We can only congratulate India for their great result. The number 3 match could have gone either way, unfortunately for us, it went their way. Now our players have got to go away and reflect on what has happened this week.”
Results:
3rd/4th: 4 India 2-0 England
Kush Kumar 3-0 Richie Fallows 11/8, 11/8, 9/11, 13/11 (46m)
Mahesh Mangaonkar 3-1Ollie Holland 6/11, 11/0, 11/6, 11/7 (54m)