Indian men's squash team in Asiad semis

The men's squash team assured India of at least another bronze medal as they qualified for the semi-finals of the event at the Asian Games here Thursday.

The team made sure they will finish Group B in the top-2 position, thereby entering the semis which will definitely entitle them to a bronze.

India defeated Japan 3-0 in their group match at the Yeorumul Squash Courts.

Mahesh Mangaonkar, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Saurav Ghosal won their respective matches comfortably to help India register third straight victory. India, who earlier defeated Jordan and China, will play Malaysia in their final group match later in the day.

Mangaonkar started the Indian campaign aggressively, thrashing Japan's Shinnosuke Tsuke 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-4).

Up next, Sandhu had a facile 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-5) win over Takanori Shimizu to give India an unassailable 2-0 lead.

In the final match, Ghosal, fresh from his silver medal winning effort in the individual event Tuesday, didn't allow Yuta Fukui to settle down. The 28-year-old Indian took just 20 minutes to wrap up the match 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-6).