India failed to rise to the challenge in the ‘Group of Death’ as the PV Sindhu-led squad crashed out of the Sudirman Cup following a 0-5 whitewash by Malaysia in Suzhou on Monday.
India needed to win the tie after losing 1-4 to Chinese Taipei in the Group C opener on Sunday but they were not able to win even a single contest, getting knocked out of the world mixed team championships exactly a year after their greatest triumph in the sport when India won the Thomas Cup in Bangkok last year.
The scratch pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Dhruv Kapila were always going to find it tough against world No.8 mixed doubles pairing of Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie as the Indians went down 16-21, 17-21 in 35 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth replaced HS Prannoy for the men’s singles tie as he had beaten former All England champion Lee Zii Jia last year. But the former Asian champion proved too good for the former world No.1 as Srikanth also went down 16-21, 11-21 in 36 minutes at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre.
All hopes rested on Sindhu as the former world champion had beaten Goh Jin Wei in all their previous four women’s singles meetings. But the tenacious world No.30 produced one of the best performances of her career to beat the two-time Olympic medallist 14-21, 21-10, 22-20 in 53 minutes, helping Malaysia clinch the tie and knocking India out of the tournament.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who last month were crowned the first Indian doubles Asian champions, lost a close battle to reigning world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, one of the two top pairs the Indians have never beaten. The Malaysians won 21-18, 21-19 for their eighth consecutive victory over the reigning Commonwealth Games champions.
Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand lost the fifth inconsequential rubber 15-21, 13-21 to Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.
India will next face Australia on Wednesday in their final group game which is an inconsequential tie.