Spearheaded by World no 9 H S Prannoy, defending champions India exhibited yet another power packed display blanking England 5-0 to seal their quarterfinal berth in the Thomas Cup in Chengdu, China on Monday.
The Indians, who overpowered Thailand in their tournament opener, will now face Indonesia to decide the group winners.
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Indian women’s badminton team have already booked their last eight spot with two successive victories and will be facing China on Tuesday in their last group A clash.
In the men’s Group C encounter, world no 9 HS Prannoy gave the team a winning start with a 21-15, 21-15 victory over Harry Huang.
Asian Games gold medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then were put under pressure by the rival’s combination of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy but the world no. 3 combinations banked on their big match experience to pull off a 21-17, 19-21, 21-15 win in an hour and five minutes.
With the team management opting to rest Lakshya Sen for this tie, Kidambi Srikanth sealed the victory for the Indians with a 21-16, 21-11 win over Nadeem Dalvi and assuring India of a quarterfinal berth.
“The idea today was to be as clinical as possible because we saw against Thailand that one result here and there could have affected us. Personally, I am happy that I gave the team a winning start as it also helps my confidence going forward,” said Prannoy, who had lost the opening match against Thailand to Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Talking about another tough win, the doubles combination of Satwiksairaj and Shetty said the conditions are quite difficult and they are happy that they found a way to win both their matches so far.
“Things were not going our way always and it’s always difficult to play a left-right combination as we hardly practice against such combinations in India. But we hung in there and that will help us ahead in the tournament,” said Satwik.
The second doubles combination of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and world no. 36 Kiran George, playing the third singles, won their respective matches comfortably to complete the scoreline.
Results: India bt England 5-0 (HS Prannoy bt Harry Huang 21-15, 21-15; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty bt Ben Lane/Sean Vendy 21-17, 19-21, 21-15; Kidambi Srikanth bt Nadeem Dalvi 21-16, 21-11; MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila bt Rory Easton/Alex Green 21-17, 21-19; Kiran George bt Cholan Kayan 21-18, 21-12)
