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Indian men thrash Cambodia 5-0, eves beaten by Japan 1-4

Chetan Anand shepherded the Indian men`s team to a 5-0 rout of Cambodia but the women shuttlers went down to Japan 1-4.

New Delhi: Chetan Anand shepherded the Indian men`s team to a 5-0 rout of Cambodia but the women
shuttlers went down to Japan 1-4 despite Saina Nehwal`s victory over Ai Goto in the Thomas and Uber Cup Asia Zone qualifiers in Nakornratchasima, Thailand on Tuesday. Chetan did not face much difficulties in outplaying Chanpisey Vann 21-11, 21-10 in the first match to set the tone for a drubbing and Arvind Bhatt then blanked Veasna Troeung 21-4, 21-9 in a lop-sided encounter to go 2-0 up in the Thomas Cup match. The Cambodians could hardly build any resistance when Indian pair of V Diju and Jishnu Sanyal crushed Mesa Vandy and Puthicheat Chindet 21-7, 21-9 to further swell the lead. Sophors Suon surrendered to Anup Sridhar 9-21, 13-21 in the fourth match and then Sanave Thomas-Rupesh Kumar beat Troeung-Vann 21-10, 21-8 in fifth match to complete their second victory in the prestigious badminton tournament. Indian men`s team had scripted a 5-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka in their tournament opener yesterday. In Uber Cup, Saina bagged the first game against Goto 21-13 and was leading 1-0 in the second when the Japanese retired from the match giving the world number seven Indian the win. However, the other members of the Indian team squandered the early advantage and lost all the remaining matches. Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian were beaten 18-21, 21-17, 14-21 by the Japanese pair of Mami Naito and Shizuka Matsuo in the second match, while national champion Trupti Murgunde was drubbed 16-21, 19-21 by Sayaka Sato in the next clash. India`s top doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also failed to live upto expectations as Japan widened the gap with Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna handing them a 21-13, 13-21, 21-12 defeat. Eriko Hirose drubbed India`s Gayatri Vartak 21-12, 21-7 in the fifth match to round off a comfortable win. Indian women had beaten formidable Hong Kong 3-2 yesterday. PTI