China win 5-0, send India packing

Bangkok, May 22

A young but depleted Indian men's badminton team crashed out of the Thomas Cup Final after losing 0-5 to heavyweights China in their last Group A match here on Tuesday. Sai Praneeth showed the stomach for fight but HS Prannoy looked completely off-colour, while rest of the Indian shuttlers lacked experience to compete against their Chinese counterparts.

World No. 9 Prannoy started the proceedings but he had a bad day in office as he was outplayed 9-21 9-21 by Olympics champion Chen Long in the opening match. Yong Arjun MR and Shlok Ramachandran played with a lot of heart and produced some good rallies before going down 12-21 15-21 to the world No. 3 pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan.

Praneeth then put up a good fight before losing 9-21 21-15 12-21 to Shi Yuqi in the second singles as China took an unassailable 3-0 lead. After being outclassed in the opening game, Praneeth showed good temperament and patience in the second as he caught the shuttle early. 

He changed the pace and played some exceptional shots to dominate the second game. He led at the break and hung on to the lead to take the second game 21-15 and storm back into the contest. In the decider, however, Shi Yuqi again stepped up the pace to open up a 7-2 lead. Praneeth erred in his strokes as Shi Yuqi grabbed an 11-4 lead. Praneeth, who had a good run of three points, bruised his finger and had to take a medical time-out. 

Thereafter, he lost the momentum as the Chinese ran away with the game and the match. In the second men's doubles, Arun George and Sanyam Shukla wentdown 15-21 22-20 15-21 against the pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen.

Lakshya loses

In the last match, the third singles, young Lakshya Sen gave an ample display of his talent, though he lost 21-16 9-21 8-21 to former world No. 1 and two-time Olympics champion Lin Dan as China sealed the contest 5-0. The 16-year old Sen took 16 minutes to pocket the opening game. He played with maturity but the Chinese star banked on his experience to take the second game 21-9. By now, Sen looked to have run out of steam and his legendary opponent grabbed the game 11-8. India had lost to France 1-4 in the opening game before winning against lowly Australia 5-0. From Group A, China and France have progressed to the quarterfinal stage. — PTI