Bangkok, May 9 (Agency) Indian Badminton team clean swept Canada 5-0 in the second Group-C tie on Monday, to advance the Thomas Cup quarterfinals. World championship medallist Kidambi Srikanth, who was leading the charge in place of Lakshya Sen as he was rested for the day, gave India early 1-0 lead after coming from one set down to win the match 20-22, 21-11, 21-15 against Brian Yang. “He (Yang) played really well during the first game. And he performed good in patches in the second and third set.
I just wanted to be more consistent and was happy I was able to do it. Even though I lost the first set, I was leading 20-18 before he took the game away from me. I felt I was playing okay and had to be more consistent not to give away any simple, lazy points,” said Srikanth after the match. Then, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s top men’s doubles pairing, stretched the lead to 2-0 as they outplayed the Canadians Jason Anthony Ho-Shue and Kevin Lee in straight sets 21-12, 21-11. In the second singles tie, H S Prannoy outclassed India-born B R Sankeerth 21-15, 21-12 to seal the tie with 3-0 unassailable lead. In the last two matches, men’s doubles team of Krishna Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Panjala trounced Dong Adam and Nyl Yakura 21-15, 21-11 while Priyanshu Rajawat beat 17-year-old Victor Lai 21-13, 20-22, 21-14 in singles to wrap up a 5-0 clean sweep against Canada. Chinese Taipie is the other team from group-C to enter the knockout stage after beating Germany in their second group stage fixture. Earlier, India toppled Germany 5-0 in its opening fixture on Sunday. India and Chinese Taipie will be up against each other in their last Group-C fixture on Wednesday.