Spearheaded by the trio of Soumyadeep Roy, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha, India trounced hosts Australia 3-0 to top the pool and storm into the quarter-finals in the men's table tennis competition at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Friday.
The Indians, who won all their four league matches, have been seeded fourth in the quarter-finals.
The other top three seeds are Singapore, Nigeria and England, in that order.
The quarter-final draw will be held on Saturday.
India had on Thursday beaten Kiribati and St. Vincent and Grenada and today they blanked Northern Ireland and Australia. They are yet to lose a match, having recorded identical 3-0 win in all the matches.
In the women section, India won against Wales, but lost to Malaysia on Friday afternoon.
Yesterday, they won against Fiji. So far, they have won two matches and lost one.
Malaysia had some ranked Asian players in the team but still had to wage a grim battle to down the Indians. Mouma Das and Nandita Saha put up gritty fight before going down to higher seeded players.
Though they have to play Mauritius in their last league match, India is virtually assured of a place in the last eight.
Results:
Men: India beat Northern Ireland 3-0 (Soumyadeep Roy bt Jason Sugrue 11-6, 11-2, 11-6; A Sharath Kamal bt Jonathan Cowan 12-10, 11-7, 11-6; Subhajit Saha bt Andrew Dennison 11-8, 11-4, 11-3).
India beat Australia 3-0 (Soumyadeep Roy bt William Henzel 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 12-10; A Sharath Kamal bt Brett Clarke 11-3, 11-8, 11-9; Subhajit Saha bt Trevor Brown 11-5, 11-9, 11-7).
Women: India beat Wales 3-1 (Poulomi Ghatak bt Bethan Daunton 11-9, 11-8, 2-11, 10-12, 11-9; Mouma Das bt Naomi Owen 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7; Nandita Saha lost to Siwan Davies 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 5-11; Poulomi Ghatak bt Naomi Owen 14-12, 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7.
India lost to Malaysia 0-3 (Mouma Das lost to Lee Wei Beh 12-14, 4-11, 11-9, 4-11; Poulomo Ghatak lost to Sock Khim Ng 9-11, 14-16, 8-11; Nandita Saha lost to Soo Jiin Chiu 9-11, 3-11, 12-14.
More from rediff