India defeated China 3-2 in the men's category of the Badminton Asia Team Championships at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, and H.S. Prannoy won their respective singles matches to give the hosts victory. India lost the two doubles matches.
In the first singles match, World No. 9 Srikanth outclassed China's Houwei Tian 21-11, 21-17. In the second singles, World No. 25 Jayaram stunned No.11 China's Zhengming Wang 22-20, 15-21, 21-18.
The match between the Jayaram-Wang saw a neck-to-neck clash as the match had excitement right till the end. But the Indian held his nerves to come out victorious against an opponent who is ranked far above him. In the third match, World No.27 Prannoy beat low-ranked rival Yuqi Shi 21-14 and 21-10.
India had a disappointing start to the doubles match. As the team ended up on the losing side in both the matches. India's Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy were defeated 20-22, 11-21 by China's Junhui Li-Zihan Qiu.
In the second doubles match, the Indian pairing of Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar were outplayed by Yilv Wang-Wen Zhang 10-21, 18-21.
PV Sindhu-led India go down against Japan
In the first singles match, PV Sindhu started well against Nozomi Okuhara winning the first set 21-18, but lost the decider to give Japan a 1-0 lead. PC Thulasi was outplayed 22-24, 14-21 by Sayak Sato in the second singles.
Yui Hashimoto won 23-25, 21-14, 21-14 in the third women’s singles against Ruthvika Shivani Gadde to give Japan a 3-0 lead in the tie. Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi added to the misery after defeating the experienced pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-12, 21-18.
Japan made it 5-0 when the pair of Sikki Reddy and PV Sindhu lost their doubles match against Shizuo Matsu and Mami Naito 18-21, 21-11, 16-21.
The Indian men's and women's teams have already made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament scheduled to be held on Friday.
