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ndonesia’s 16-year-long Thomas Cup title drought continues after it lost 3-1 to China in the semifinals of the badminton tournament on Friday.

Veteran duo Hendra Setiawan and Muhammad Ahsan, who played the deciding match, could not deliver, bowing out 21-17, 18-21 and 21-12 to Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen in 53 minutes at the IMPACT Arena in Bangkok.

The best-of-five semifinal match opened with a fierce 59-minute battle between world number-13 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and world number-five Chen Long.

The tight match was won 22-20 and 21-16 by Chen, giving China the initial lead. It was a sore blow to Ginting, who defeated Chen in a previous meeting at the 2018 Indonesian Masters in Jakarta in January.

Overwhelmed Ginting said he had adopted an attacking strategy as he thought it would keep Chen from dominating. Unexpectedly, however, instead of playing defensively, seasoned Chen managed to flip the situation by applying similar tactics.

“I received no special instruction from my coach. [He] only asked me to remember the way Chen played the game in our last meeting in the 2018 Indonesia Masters since he might not change his style much,” he said.

The plan didn’t work out, meaning that Chen added a win to their head-to-head challenges, although Ginting still leads by 3-2.

It was almost like a pattern for the Indonesian men’s team in this year’s cup to rebound in the second match as its top pair managed to get the equalizer. In Thursday’s quarterfinals, Indonesia also lost its first match before bouncing back to nail Malaysia 3-2.

World number-one pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo secured the first win for the team after outclassing world number-three duo Zhang Nan and Liu Cheng 12-21, 21-17 and 21-15 in 55 minutes.

Holding on to their recent victory against the Chinese last December, Kevin and Marcus were shocked to discover that the Chinese pair played better. Zhang and Liu owned the first game by a long chalk.

The Indonesian pair needed a change of strategy as they had to win the match to get the necessary equalizer. Taking an aggressive approach, Kevin and Marcus won the second game before wrapping it up victoriously.

Kevin blamed the drifts for their loss in the first game. He said the drifts were much stronger as compared to previous days.

Agreeing with his partner, Marcus said the drifts affecting his serves troubled him in the first game. “I felt like the drifts held down my serves so I needed to put more power into it,” he added.

Playing the third match, world number-11 Jonatan Christie failed to support his team by taking it into the lead as he lost 18-21, 21-12 and 21-15 to world number-three Shi Yuqi in 63 minutes.

This meant that Indonesia’s road to reclaim the trophy after 16 years in Thursday night’s battle had to go on longer.

“I managed to force him to run around the court to hit returns in the first game, but I couldn’t do it again in the remaining games,” said Jonatan, adding that he noticed Shi had a lot more confidence after winning the 2018 All England Open in March.

Similar to Kevin and Marcus, Jonatan also blamed it on the drifts. “I regret that I failed to contribute a point for Indonesia,” he added.

Hendra and Ahsan’s loss in the deciding fourth match sent the Indonesian team home empty-handed, just like two years ago when the country lost in the final against Denmark.