India stayed on course for promotion in the next edition of World Mixed Team Badminton Championship, for the Sudirman Cup, when they thrashed Scotland 4-1 for their third successive victory in Group 3B, in Beijing, on Thursday.
The Indians, who topped the sub-group with identical wins over the USA and Wales earlier, will now meet the winner of Group 3A in the play-off to decide which team earns promotion to Group 2 in the 2007 edition of the championship.
Only top eight teams in Group 1 have a chance to clinch the title while all other teams are divided into groups and earn promotion or are demoted to lower groups according to their performance.
India were given a winning start by the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta, who played despite having fever, when they defeated A Bowman and M McEwan in straight games 15-4, 15-10.
National men's champion Anup Sridhar made it 2-0 with a 15-4, 15-5 thrashing of C Goddard and Trupti Murgunde sealed the issue when she rallied to beat S Hughes 1-11, 11-7, 11-6 in 42 minutes in the women's singles.
The men's doubles pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar, which had lost both their earlier matches, also got to winning ways as they got the better of Robertson and Bowman 15-1, 15-13 to make it 4-0 in India's favour.
However, a clean sweep could not become a reality as a struggling Jwala and Shruti Kurian preferred to take it easy and went down 3-15, 1-15 in the women's doubles in just 15 minutes.
After the match, Jwala said her throat was paining and her general condition was not good but the team management and the shuttler were hopeful that she could play her part in the crucial play-off tomorrow.
Commenting on the matches, India's coach, Hadi Sugiyanto, said he was happy with the performance of the team as a whole but concerned about the health of Jwala, who has to play two matches -- mixed doubles and women's doubles.
"The team is trying their best. Our aim is to qualify for Group 2 in the 2007 Sudirman Cup," the Indonesian coach said.
India is most likely to play Poland, which has won both their earlier league matches and is facing lowly Bulgaria later today, in the play-off.
About tomorrow's encounter, Sugiyanto admitted that it would be a "difficult" match but expressed confidence in the young team saying they had the fighting spirit and resolve to win.
"I hope, we will win," Sugiyanto, who has been training the Indian team for just over a year, said.
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