DUBAI, Feb 15: India thrashed United Arab Emirates 5-0 to registered their second win on the trot and virtually seal a spot in the quarterfinals of the Asia Mixed Team Badminton Championships here on Wednesday.
Star players P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy were rested after they helped India beat Kazakhstan 5-0 in their opening match on Tuesday. Aakarshi Kashyap and Lakshya Sen took their place in the women’s and men’s singles respectively on Wednesday.
Sen was the first to start the proceedings for India and he easily defeated Dev Vishnu 21-16 21-12 in 31 minutes.
Aakarshi then took just 26 minutes to outplay Madhumitha Sundarapandian 21-6 21-7 and give India 2-0 lead.
The men’s doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Chirag Shetty made it 3-0 with 21-15 21-14 over the duo of Dev Ayyappan and Dhiren Ayyappan.
The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam as well as the mixed doubles duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto then completed the formalities with easy wins over their respective opponents.
While Ashwini and Shikha beat the UAE pair of Sanika Dhawan and Akansha Raj 21-7 21-4, Ishaan and Tanisha defeated Latheesh Bharath and Rajesh Nayonika 21-13 21-8.
India play Malaysia in their last Group B match on Thursday, which will be their toughest fixture.
The top two teams from each of the four-team four groups will qualify for the quarterfinals. (PTI)