XIAMEN, (China) May 1: India beat England 3-2 in their final group D match to register a consolation win at the BWF Sudirman Cup Finals here on Thursday.
India had suffered their second defeat on the trot after losing 1-4 against Indonesia at the Xiamen Fenghuang Gymnasium to crash out of the race to the quarterfinals.
The loss came after a similar 1-4 defeat to Denmark in their opening match of Group D last week.
With nothing to lose, world no. 44 Anupama Upadhyaya hardly broke her sweat to get the better of lower-ranked Miu Lin Ngan 21-12 21-16 in the women’s singles match that lasted a mere 41 minutes.Satish Kumar Karunakaran then had to toil hard for one hour and 13 minutes to get past Harry Huang 18-21 22-20 21-13 to hand India a 2-0 lead.
Then the women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Shruti Mishra took just 42 minutes to beat the English pair of Lizzie Tolman and Estelle Van Leeuwen 21-17 21-17 to secure the contest for India.
The Indians, however, lost the last two matches of the tie but it hardly made any difference as they secured the match after wins in the first three encounters.
In the men’s doubles match, the Indian pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi lost to Rory Easton and Alex Green 14-21 21-11 13-21 in 52 minutes.
In the final inconsequential match of the day, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Karunakaran and Crasto lost to Callum Hemming and Leeuwen 21-11, 13-21 22-24. (PTI)
