NEW DELHI: Women shuttlers led by singles title-favourite Saina Nehwal provided India with a golden double to pilot the country to a historic second-place finish in the Commonwealth Games that ended on Thursday.
Saina rallied brilliantly from a first-game loss to put it across Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 in the women's singles final after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had captured the doubles crown.
The men's hockey team crashed to a humiliating 0-8 defeat against world and defending champions Australia in the final, but the two-gold final flourish in badminton enabled India to rise to the second spot in the medals tally with 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals.
England, ahead of India going into the last day of the Games, finished in third place with a total haul of 37-59-46 while Australia ended up in the top position with a huge heist of 74-55-48.
The push for the second spot on the concluding day was started by Jwala and Ashwini. The duo overwhelmed Singapore's Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei in straight games to become India's first women's doubles pair to win a gold medal in badminton.
The second-seeded Indian pair subdued their top-seeded rivals 21-16, 21-19 by combining attack and defense in the right mixture in front of the packed crowd at the Siri Fort complex.
Then came Saina's crucial gold-winning effort that pushed the country ahead of England, in their bitter fight for the runner-up position in the Games.
The hosts clinched another medal, a bronze, in table tennis when Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das prevailed in the women's doubles bronze medal play-off against Australian duo Tan Zed Vivian and Peri Campbell-Innes.
But in men's hockey gold medal-deciding clash, the Indian team suffered one of their worst-ever defeats in front of a huge crowd that included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
