Indian men's sepaktakraw team may have been assured of a quarterfinal berth even before their first spike but the hosts qualified in grand style today after beating Singapore for the second time in as many days at World SuperSeries here.
Coach Hemraj stayed with the same regu that on Wednesday staged the most amazing comeback in SuperSeries history, and his faith in Akash Singh, Sandeep Kumar and G. Jiteshor Sharma was justified when they won 15-9, 16-14, 15-9 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here.
Although today's match may have lacked the drama and edge-of-seat action of their first encounter, India still managed to get the crowd going, thanks to Akash and his ability to spike almost at will.
The national team coasted in the first set and looked ready to do the same in the second after taking a 4-0 lead and then extending it to 7-2, but Singapore clawed back at 14-14. India then duly collected the two points needed to win, and never looked back in the third set.
"We played just as well today as we did in our first match, but what gave us the edge was the confidence that we had defeated Singapore just the day before," said chief coach Hemraj, adding that he would not make changes to the team in their quarter-finals against Iran.
India and Singapore, who qualified for the quarter-final on account if being in the two-team Group D, will be joined in the quarter-final by Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.
This tournament will be followed by SuperSeries Thailand in Bangkok from September 26-29, SuperSeries Malaysia 2013/14 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from October 31 to November 3.
Results (Day 2):
Men's:
Group B: Malaysia bt Iran 3-0 (15-7, 15-7, 15-9) Group C: Indonesia bt South Korea 3-1 (15-10, 15-13, 10-15, 15-9).
