Paderborn, Germany: Sixth seeded India moved into the quarterfinals of the men's World team squash championship with a runaway 2-0 win against giant-killers Denmark here on Wednesday to set up a clash with fourth-ranked Australia.
It is only the second time in the past three decades that India has reached this stage. The last time was in 2005 when the event was played at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai.
Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu led the Indian challenge by winning the first match against Morten Sorensen 11-6, 11-1, 11-8 in 29 minutes.
Harinder dominated the match from start to finish, moving Sorensen at will. The Dane certainly looked to be in some discomfort after his marathon match the previous night when his team shocked Pakistan.
However, Harinder kept his focus and maintained pressure to win convincingly, dropping only 15 points.
National champion Saurav Ghosal then confirmed India's place in the quarter-finals when he won a hard-fought second singles against Kristian Frost Olesen 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9 in 66 minutes.
Ghosal had to work hard for his victory. Having won the first two games comfortably, it seemed that he let his guard down.
Oelsen came back to win the third and pushed Ghosal until the end of the fourth. However, at 9-9, Ghosal played two controlled rallies to confirm victory.
With India taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead, the third singles between Siddharth Suchde and Ramus Nielsen was not played.
Quarter-final line-up:
England vs Italy; Australia vs India; France vs Malaysia; Egypt vs USA.
Results:
India beat Denmark 2-0: Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Morten Sorensen 11-6, 11-1, 11-8; Saurav Ghosal bt Kristian Frost Olesen 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9.
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