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India loses to Australia in world squash team quarters
India fought hard but eventually ran out of steam going down to former champions Australia in the quarterfinal of the World Squash Team Championship at Padewrborn (Germany).
India fought hard but eventually ran out of steam going down to former champions Australia in the quarterfinal of the World Squash Team Championship at Padewrborn (Germany).
In the quarterfinals last night, Aussie top rung player, David Palmer recovered from a game down to get the better of India's highest ranked player Saurav Ghosal 7-11 11-8 11-4 11-5 in 51 minutes.
Siddharth Suchde fought gallantly before going down to Cameron Pilley 11-9, 11-8, 11-4 in 50 minutes.
The third tie between Stewart Boswell and Harinder Pal Sandhu was withdrawn.
The top four teams predictably took their places in the semi-finals. Favourites England will face fourth seeds Australia and title-holders Egypt will take on third seeds France in the dream semifinal.
Sixth seeded India now play Italy for the sixth to eighth placing.
Despite the loss, Indian national coach Cyrus Poncha was pleased with his team's performance.
"Overall, it's a good show by our boys. Obviously, on world rankings, the Australian team was higher than ours - but we gave a great fight.
"We've got a young team, with an average age of 22 - so when you look at the big teams Egypt, England, Australia and France, we should get the title in two years time," he said.
"Saurav played a really good game and put David under pressure," explained Australian team manager Byron Davis.
"But David fought hard to come back and win the match. To get that win was great - that put the pressure on them. Cameron then did what he needed to do and pulled us through. We're really glad to be in the semi-finals and look forward to playing England on the glass court," he said.
