The Indian men's team beat a depleted China 3-2 at the Badminton Asia Team Championships at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad, on Thursday.
Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy emerged triumphant in their respective singles matches to guide India to victory, winning the first three singles before the hosts lost the two doubles matches.
The India's men's and women's teams have already made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament.
In the first singles match, Srikanth, currently the top ranked player for India in the World at No. 9, gave a great start to his team's campaign with a superb 21-11, 21-17 win over China's Houwei Tian.
In the second singles between Ajay Jayaram and China's Zhengming Wang, the Indian won the match 22-20, 15-21, 21-18.
Though Wang was well ahead of Jayaram in terms of rankings, the Indian came up with a spirited performance to challenge his rival.
It was an exciting contest between Jayaram and Wang as both of them left no stone unturned to outsmart each other. Particularly, the third and decisive game of the match was a battle of wits.
"It's a different feeling to play for the country. It's always great to beat a higher ranked Chinese player," Jayaram said after the match.
India's HS Prannoy, ranked 27, did not have to sweat out much to tame his low-ranked rival Yuqi Shi and he closed the proceedings 21-14, 21-10.
The two doubles matches of the tie were, however, a disappointment for India as the team ended on the losing side. Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy lost to China's Junhui Li-Zihan Qiu 20-22, 11-21.
In the second doubles match, the Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar was defeated by Yilv Wang-Wen Zhang 10-21, 18-21.
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