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Already through to the quarterfinals, the Indian men’s badminton team suffered a defeat at the hands of formidable China in its last group match of the Thomas Cup here on Thursday.
Only the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty could manage a win in the men’s team championship tie as they beat He Ji Ting and Zhou Hao Dong 21-14 21-14 in a 41-minute contest.
The win by Rankireddy and Shetty duo boosted the confidence of the Indian team after a struggling Kidambi Srikanth began the day for India with a 12-21 16-21 loss to Shi Yu Qi in 36 minutes.
Sameer Verma gave a tough fight to Lu Guang Ju but eventually lost his singles match 21-14 9-21 22-24 after one hour and 23 minutes as India trailed 1-2.
The other doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down fighting 24-26 19-21 to Liu Cheng and Wang Yi Lyu in 52 minutes before Kiran George lost to Li Shi Feng 15-21 17-21 in the 43-minute singles match.
The defeat against China was the first for the men’s team in the tournament.
It had beaten the Netherlands 5-0 on Sunday before notching up a victory against Tahiti by an identical margin on Tuesday to qualify for Thomas Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2010.
The women’s team plays against Japan in the Uber Cup quarterfinal match later in the day.
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