Singapore ties with Japan for silver
But Singapore's third pair of Jason Yeong-Nathan and Remy Ong posted 441, 478 and 492 to take over the running, 32 pins ahead of the Chinese pair at the halfway mark. Jason shot 203, 246 and 212 while Ong rolled 238, 232 and 280.
Another respectable 436 by Jason and Ong gave the Singaporean pair some breathing space and a lead of 41 pins as Zhang and Du stayed closely behind in second. At this stage, the Singaporean would have to bring home 863 or more in their last two games to overhaul Squad A leader.
A lowly 405 in the fifth game put the Singapore pair on the back foot and needing an even higher game of 460 or more to stand a chance of snatching the gold.
Jason brought home seven consecutive strikes but Ong had two more opened frames in the seventh and eighth which forced the pair needing to strike out from frame nine to win the gold by 1 pin.
"I did well in the first three games as Jason was contributing to our scores," said the 31-year-old Ong after recovering from breaking down in tears. "In the second half, it was all Jason and he was simply outstanding.
"We knew we had a golden opportunity to nail the gold but we just simply could not deliver. But we're not dampened at all. Our bonding as a team is very strong and this will show in the remaining events."
"I made sure I was not intimidated by the fact that we've to bowl exceptionally well in order to win the gold," said Jason, who won the Trios silver at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
China faded off to end third in the squad with 2622 as Korea's Choi and Jang stromed home with a sizzling 479, albeit a little late, to snatch second in the squad with 2683.
Adrian Ang and Alex Liew clinched Malaysia's first gold medal with 2711 while Singapore tied with Japan's Shogo Wada and Tomokatsu Yamashita for the silver medal with 2691. Korea missed the podium to finish in fourth.
In the earlier squad, Benjamin Lim partnered Mark Wong to finish 11th in the squad and 26th position overall with 2456 while Basil Low and Ng Tiac Pin managed only 19th and 29th overall with 2307.
Detailed scores: Men's Doubles Combined | Men's Doubles Squad B | Men's Doubles Squad A.