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Journalism of Courage
Everyone’s talking about how speechless it left them. A week on from the All England semifinals, the hangover of _that_ rally and _that_ defense, still persists, as it loops, now with over 506k views. An Se Young and Li Shifeng might have been crowned singles champions at All England, but perhaps the lingering, enduring memory of 2023 Birmingham will be that 48-shot rally between Lisa Ayu Kusumawati – Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto of Indonesia and Zheng Si Wei – Huang Ya Qiong of China.
A sitting duck, if there was one in badminton, literally, Lisa had stumbled back to sit with feet immobile, apart from twisting on the court, from the 41st shot, but not helpless nor imbalanced as the Chinese Zheng/Huang peppered her with smashes. She would return four more shuttles with her defense – sitting down – and almost score a winner on the final shot, leaving her opponents tangle-toed. And leaving commentators wanting a slow-motion replay – slow enough to take it all in, in stretched time.
The crowd couldn’t stop clapping as all four players desperately scrambled in unreal defense. The video clip got addictive even, and despite knowing the shuttle had landed out (apologies for the Spoiler if you hadn’t seen it earlier), you hoped it would land a few inches in, the next time you looped back the reel.
Rally of the tournament? Rally of the year? We are only in March, but this entry looks more definite than merely being pencilled in as options. Each defensive exchange will be compared to this one at any rate. Can one punch clear sitting down, like Lisa? Punch it all the way, aiming for the backline.
But first a background to the pairings. Huang/Zheng are Tokyo silver medallists and thrice World Champions, having now won the All England three times including this edition. Lisa/Rehan were at their first-ever All England together, and unseeded.
Indonesian media Kompas.id had quoted Rehan as saying he wanted to go a step further than his father who was an All England finalist from 1997. His father, nicknamed Trikus Kusharjanto alongside mixed doubles partner Minarti Timur made the 1997 World’s at Glasgow, and won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Lisa, training at the Indonesian national centre at Cipayang, Jakarta is 22, and ranked 15th – second best after Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari, who are World No 11.
Indonesian hopes at the All England though, rested on Lisa/Rehan who had made the last four. Going past Giquel/Delrue, they had hurdled over Japanese Yamashita/Shinoya in a tricky quarters, 21-19, 15-21, 21-19 where Yamashita had sailed the shuttle long to give the Indonesians a win. There had been slick rallies in the lead up quarterfinal match too. But nothing to match the 35-second slightly-fast forwarded appearing scorcher that played out in the semifinal. _That_ rally. When the duo won the Hylo Open Super 300 last season, reports had quoted similar long, fierce rallies. However the All England stage elevated this defense to something that was unsurpassable. As lists go, also un-usurpable, never mind the Chinese won the point and match too.
Huang/Zheng had started the match 4-0 up, and led 11-8 at first interval before taking the opening set 21-17. Rehan had received treatment for the back of his hand early in the match. After leading 7-1, scores had been tied at 8-8 in the second, when our redoubtable rally fetched up.
Zheng was serving and the Chinese were dipping the shuttle down steep and heavily. Rehan’s low slung crouch defense was being matched by Lisa’s alternate squat defending and diving forward and sideways. On the 23rd shot, Lisa would dive to the right front corner of the court, keep the shuttle in play but finish up sprawled under the net. Rehan would hold the fort in the next couple of exchanges.
Lisa would bounce up on her feet and a few shots down the line, would pick another one inches off the ground from the back. In those precise astonishing moments where The Rally turned unreal, Lisa would lunge forward on the left forecourt corner, and lift the shuttle for Zheng to comfortably jump-smash it down just about. And it’s what he would do, the force of the shuttle and her own crumbling squat leaving Lisa slumped back in sitting position at midcourt.
It’s from here that Lisa would simultaneously defend and yo-yo the Chinese along an invisible silken string at the end of which was the shuttle. The first forehand low drive still had momentum and height as she fell back. When Zheng smashed on her, she would angle the next fling with Huang intercepting it and sending it right back. At her. Hoping that the sitting figure wouldn’t be able to return.
Lisa would then twist her torso to gain some sort of a swing and torque and a hold on the shuttle and send a backhand cross to the left frontcourt of the Chinese – where both rushed, a smart set-up from the Indonesian. Ridiculously tough, because she was plonked on the ground. She was sitting, Huang/Zheng were jump smashing – the difficulty differential could not have been more pronounced. Yet, it was Lisa controlling the rally with her racquet wizardry and grip.
With both Chinese almost colliding into each other chasing down that reflex backhand cross, Lisa took a final punt and sent a punch clear to the left baseline. Zheng would go haring after it madly, with no chance of getting to it. But in a wretched piece of luck, the shuttle would travel a few inches long. Zheng unable to break his maddened run, would signal Out with outstretched hands even while hopping over the sponsor signboards, relieved they had won the point.
It was defense – along length, breadth, the diagonal alley and in the fourth dimension of sitting height. Lisa had knocked the Chinese off their feet and it left a trail of punched defiance. Huang/Zheng took the next two points, Lisa/Rehan equalised at 11-all. The Indonesian fighting spirit would give them seven consecutive points, as they pushed a decider against the World No 1s. It ended 21-13 in favour of the Chinese, but the divine defense was burnished on every mind present at Utilita and those who watched the clip on an endless loop.
“I wanted to prove I could do it. I wanted to prove I could catch the shuttle again and again, no matter where it was falling. That’s it really,” Lisa would tell the All England social media team.
A still-boggled Zheng would say: “In that point we needed to have more patience. They had a strong defense, so we needed to keep attacking, keep attacking, keep attacking. We liked it because the last shuttle was down offside (out). Because if it had fallen in, we could not have saved the shuttle.” Zheng conceded the punch had eluded them; Huang just looked on dazed.
The commentator had been quibbling about some this and that serve when The rally interrupted his train of thought. “It’s still going on,”… “Still” he would say, because Lisa had looked like she was going to fall, then had actually fallen and kept the bird flying. Still.
“That is the craziest rally I’ve ever seen,” he would say gobsmacked. Crazy was right. And they have a wonderful word for it in Indonesian Bahasa: Gilaa.
The defense was simply, gleefully ‘Gilaa’.
