Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee didn't have a chance in hell. Sport may be one of the great egalitarian ventures of mankind, where everyone has a fighting chance once they enter the sporting arena, but table tennis, especially in China, is a different ball game.
In a country where TT might be the closest thing to religion, losing is simply not an option. Sample this: The Asian Games has held women's doubles events in 13 editions. China have eight golds. Five of those times they won silver as well. It's just what they do.
World no. 112 Sutirtha and no. 177 Ayhika were in the women's doubles quarterfinals of the Hangzhou Asian Games, and up against them were world no. 4 Wang Yidi and the great Chen Meng, world no.2 and multiple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist. Meng had been part of the China team that had swept the women's team event in this very edition: winning gold without dropping a match.
No chance. So their coach told them: "Bindaas Khelo!" Have fun, just play.
And they did. Boy, did they play.
The first game of their quarterfinal tie lasted just eight minutes, and the Indians had it in the bag 11-5. A minute longer in the second and it was done with the same score. Somehow, from somewhere, Sutirtha and Ayhika had dug out an A-game they themselves might not have known they had. With Sutirtha forcing the play and Ayhika setting the tempo, they controlled every aspect of the match. Naturally more defensive, Ayhika had told ESPN on the sidelines of the Ultimate Table Tennis league that she'd been working on attacking more, mixing-and-matching more, and you could see here what that approach had done to her game.
A 2-0 lead, against a team from China. Wang had been run close by Manika Batra earlier in the day, before recovering briskly to win 4-2, and for the Indian TT aficionado that had been a heady rush. But what they were seeing here was a whole different level.
Then game 3 happened and it looked like that would be very much that. Wang and Chen, especially the latter, stepped on the gas. Nine minutes into the game, they'd taken it 11-5. Clenched fists were accompanied with loud roars -- rare displays of emotion for a China team in an Asiad quarterfinal -- but they were back.
In the second (or final?) game, the Indians took an early lead at 2-1, but the Chinese never truly let them go. 2-1 became 4-2 with a lovely Ayhika drop shot, before Meng powered a couple of forehands in to make it 4-4. Sutirtha responded with a massive one of her own, and it was 5-4. That lead climbed to 7-4 when Ayhika made a delightful down-the-line backhand stick. There were uncharacteristic errors from both Meng and Wang but much of it was forced by the all-out aggression of the Indians. At 8-5, a break in play was called, and it was at this point, three points away from doing the unthinkable, that India's coach told her wards: Bindaas Khelo.
It would have been understandable, even expected, if they didn't do anything bindaas. If they crumbled under the immense pressure being mounted by Chen and Wang, and a raucous home crowd. Instead, they won the next point. "Whoever watches our doubles asks us why we talk so much and laugh," Ayhika had told ESPN. "That is our way of supporting each other and being free so we can play well."
Chen and Wang were fighting for their nation's history in this sport, and they reeled them back to 10-9, but the talking never stopped, neither did the supporting. And so at no point did either of the Mukherjees play it safe and it showed, as the Chinese pair looked to find tighter and more extreme margins. And then, Meng hit a forehand long. Game won 11-9. Match won 3-1.
Wow js wow! Historic! Ayhika & Suthirtha Mukherjee bt current World Champions & WR #2 from China, in China to assure India a medal in #TableTennis Women's Doubles #AsianGames2022����
Ayhika's rubber - Dr. Neubauer Gorilla kept the Chinese puzzled! Adding to Suthirtha's attacks �� pic.twitter.com/BZcYk0fxhA
- Neha Aggarwal Sharma OLY (@nehaaggarwal) September 30, 2023
The record books will show it as an unforced error, but it was anything but. Ayhika and Sutirtha had pushed and prodded and smashed and dropped their way under the skins of two of the best TT players on the planet. They'd played bindaas and Goliath had no idea what hit them. Now they walk into a semifinal knowing the least they'll come home with is a bronze... but if their approach on Saturday was any indication, they'll be going all out for that shiny yellow metal come Monday.
"Khelo Bindaas!" Everything else will flow.
P.S. Incredibly, an hour later the team of Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha (world nos. 1 and 3) were defeated by Japan's Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara by the same score, 3-1. For the first time since Bangkok 1966, there will be no Chinese medalists in table tennis women's doubles.