Commonwealth Games 2022 Badminton Final PV Sindhu Vs Michelle Li Highlights: Sindhu clinches her 1st singles gold

The Indian flag goes up with the Canadian and Singapore flags on either side of it. Then the Indian national anthem is played in the arena. Sindhu then takes a pic with the silver and bronze medallists on the podium and then invites her own team to the podium for a pic. She then high fives a few fans, signs a few autographs, takes a few selfies, makes some memories for fans to remember for the rest of their lives before exiting in a blaze of glory. That's it from us on this live blog but do skip to the others we have running, there are more badminton medals and potentially hockey and table tennis to be won for Indians. 

Here are Jia Min Yeo, Michelle  Li and PV Sindhu, who high fives the Indian fans on her way out. This is Li's second medal at the Games. The loudest cheers, obviously, reserved for Sindhu who steps up to the podium and takes the gold medal. 

Stay tuned, Sindhu and Li will return to the Show Court alongwith Singapore's Jia Min Yeo, who won broze for the medal ceremony. 

Sindhu beats Li 21-15, 21-13. There it is! First-ever CWG singles gold medal for PV Sindhu. She won bronze in 2014, silver in 2018 and has now completed the set. It is her first singles gold and her second gold overall, having been part of the Indian team that won the mixed team event at Gold Coast 2018. 

Li can't get away a net shot and Sindhu takes a 19-13 lead. Li then hits a high cross courth shot wide and gets to seven championship points. 

Li giving it her all but Sindhu is just two good. Two high quality cross-courters from Sindhu gets four points away from the gold medal. 

Li spread eagled on the floor trying to reach Sindhu's cross court smash from her right and the Indian extends her lead to six points. Li then wins the next two points to reduce the gap to four. However, it's Li herself who breaks that run with an attempted cross court smash that is buried in the net. Li, however, continues to win points and she reduces the lead to three points after an epic 57-shot rally. 

Sindhu absolutely purring now. Li breaks Sindhu's run of points to make it 8-4 but then Sindhu takes two more points before Li wins another. A nice drop shot from Li helps her win a net exchange and the score is 10-6. She then finds the net with an attempted drop shot and Sindhu goes into the interval with a five-point lead. 

Sindhu with an arrow straight smash down the line all the way from the back to take a 3-2 lead. She then contorts her body brilliantly to fend away a body smash that lands just inside the back right corner. Another smash at Li's head lets Sindhu open up a three-point lead

Li can't get a net shot away and the first game goes to Sindhu. A clenched fist and a short scream from Sindhu as she makes her way to the side of the court. One game away now from the gold medal. Li not helping her case with unforced errors and that is something she has to cut away completely one feels to get back in this match. 

Just as Li starts looking like she is making some progress, Sindhu produces an unreturnable shot to extend her lead. The latest being a body smash that had Li twisting and turning before going down on the court. 

Sindhu quick off the blocks after the interval, extending the lead to 13-8. Li then hits a cross smash wide to lose the next rally, which was the longest since the interval at the time. Li finally wins a point with a cross court smash to an empty area at the front of the court to Sindhu's right but then finds the net at the end of a long rally. 

Sindhu opens up a two-point gap after getting her judgement right on a lob from Li that was going long. She barks a “C'mon!” after that but then hits one long herself at the end of the next rally. Li then hits an overhead drop into the net and Sindh leads 10-8. A shot to the back court then goes wide and Sindhu leads 11-8 at the interval. 

Well she is moving on comparatively better but Sindhu's movements continue to be restricted by whatever her injury is on the left ankle. Li taking full advantage of that by getting the Indian to move as much as possible. 

Her left ankle is strapped but Sindhu is moving better than she was yesterday. She has taken a useful two-point lead early on after Li served first. 

There they are, Sindhu and Li walk out to loud cheers from the crowd, most of which is reserved for the Indian. Both players had bruising semifinal ties , we will see how that affects them. Sindhu had won a bronze in 2014, silver in 2018 and now going for the full set. 

In case you are wondering why it is taking so long for Sindhu and Li to enter the court, it is because the mixed doubles medal winners are having their much deserved moment of glory. Medals are being flashed around and selfies are being taken as the athlete make their way out of the arena after standing on the podium. It is the first of five medal ceremonies that will take place today. 

Sindhu had faced fellow Indian superstar Saina Nehwal in the Gold Coast 2018 women's singles final. She was much higher ranked than Saina by that point and yet, it was the older Indian who ended up winning a gripping two-game match 21-18, 23-21. 

The mixed doubles final has just come to conclusion and the women's singles final is up next on the Show Court. In case you are wondering, Singapore's Terry Hee and Jessica Tan have won the gold medal, beating England's Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis 21-16, 21-15. 

It's not just Sindhu who could win a medal today of course. Lakshya Sen is in the men's singles gold medal match while Kidambi Srikanth is in the men's singles bronze medal match. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are in the men's doubles final as well. 

Sindhu had to make full use of her array of technical skills to go past Jia Min Yeo. With that strapped up left foot restricting her movements, Sindhu found it difficult to win points whenever her opponent started dictating the flow of the game. The Indian, however, was moving better as the match progressed, to the point that she was almost moving like her normal self towards the end of the second game. She eventually won the match 21-19, 21-17. 

Sindhu leads the overall head to head stats against Li 8-2 but the Canadian's two victories have come in the last two matches that the pair have played against each other. Sindhu has to break a run here.

Li became the first Canadian to win a CWG gold medal in women's singles badminton in 2014. This year, she got a bye in the round of 64 and a walkover in the round of 32 and so her tournament truly started at the round of 16. She dropped a game for the first time in her epic semi-final clash against Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour yesterday.

No we are not talking about a weakness that the Indian superstar has but rather about her Achilles' tendon, which seemed to be putting her in a world of pain during the semi-final against Jia Min Yeo of Singapore. It was because of her inability to move that Jia managed to push her in both games and still, Sindhu did manage to win in straight games. Wonder how much it will affect the result of today's match though.

Sindhu is yet to win a major tournament in 2022, but is high on the confidence of winning the Singapore Open, the Syed Modi International and the Swiss Open. In world tour events, Sindhu has fallen short, having made it to 10 quarterfinals, 7 semifinals across a total of 13 tournaments. She also won a bronze at the Asia Championships but is yet to win a big one. Today could be the start.