India crash out

Vantaa

Competing without its star players, the Indian badminton team's chances to qualify for the knockout stage of the Sudirman Cup ended after suffering a heavy 0-5 defeat against formidable China here on Monday.

It was India's second consecutive defeat after losing the Group A opener to Thailand and now the final match against Finland on Wednesday has been rendered inconsequential.

Up against 11-time champions China, the chances were always slim for the new-look Indian team but the fact that the players couldn't even win a single game reflects poorly on the bench strength in Indian badminton.

The absence of double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and men's doubles pair of Chirag

Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also hurt India's prospect as the team cut a sorry figure at the team-tournament.

Starting the proceedings, men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapil put up a fight against Liu Cheng and Zhou Hao Dong before going down 20-22 17-21.

Young Aditi Bhatt then tested her skills against Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei, who expectedly notched up an easy 21-9 21-8 win to put China ahead 2-0.

World No. 15 B Sai Praneeth then took the court against former All England Champion Shi Yuqi in men's singles but it turned out be a one-sided affair as he went down 10-21 10-21 as China sealed the contest by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Commonweath Games bronze medallist Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki reddy lost 16-21 13-21 to Chinese Zheng Yu and Li Wen Mei.