NANNING (CHINA), May 22: India crashed out of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championships after losing 0-5 to 10-time champions China in the second and final group match, here on Wednesday.
After going down 2-3 to Malaysia in their opening Group 1D match, India needed an extraordinary effort to get across the mighty Chinese but the shuttlers yet again produced a below-par performance to go down in a lop-sided contest.
The gap between India�s mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy and Chinese combination of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping was evident once again as they went down 5-21, 11-21 against the World No. 2 pair to trail 0-1.
Sameer Verma, whose straight-game loss to Lee Zii Jia proved to be vital against Malaysia on Tuesday, once again took the court after Kidambi Srikanth suffered an injury during practice sessions here.
�Won�t be playing today due to an injury caused during practice. Will be backing the team for today�s all-important match,� Srikanth had tweeted ahead of the clash.
In Srikanth�s absence, Sameer fought for an hour and 11 minutes in the men�s singles tie before losing 17-21, 20-22 against Olympic champion Chen Long as India slumped to 0-2 deficit.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who recently made a comeback after recovering from a shoulder injury, and Chirag Shetty were then given the task of taming the World No. 7 pair of Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong but the Indian men�s doubles pair lost 21-18, 15-21, 17-21 to allow China to take an unassailable 3-0 lead.
Saina Nehwal then went down 12-21, 17-21 to All England Champion Chen Yufei in a 33-minute women�s singles match, while World No. 3 women�s doubles pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan beat Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki 21-12, 21-15 as India sunk without a trace.
India had reached the quarterfinals in the 2011 and 2017 editions of the Sudirman Cup. � PTI
