Indian table tennis players Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee clinched a bronze medal at the Asian Games in the women's doubles semifinal. They were outgunned by their opponents the North Korean duo, Suyong Cha and Sugyong Pak with a score of 3-4 in the decider.

However, the Mukherjees, became India's first women's doubles pair to assure a table tennis medal at the Asian Games by beating world champions, Chen Meng and Yidi Wang of China on Saturday.

The Indians hailing from Naihati, started off the semi-final on an positive note, and took a 4-0 lead in the opening game. However, the North Koreans, made a strong comeback in the second game with 3-1 lead. As the opponents got better at the rallies, the Indians were forced to change their strategy to offensive. But Korea took the game 11-8. Sutirtha and Ayhika then won the third game 11-7.

 This head to head situation continued throughout the game  and finally in the decider, the North Korean pair went away with a big enough lead, giving the Mukherjees no chance of a comeback. The final scoreline was 7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 11-2 in favour of the North Koreans.

"Asian Games TT medal is equivalent to an Olympic medal, especially in women. What they have achieved today will go down in the books," said former India table tennis player and the coach of Ayhika and Sutirtha Somoyadeep Roy. This bronze was definitely a landmark moment in Indian table tennis.