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Indonesia thrash England to join China in last four
13/05/2000 11:38:07 PM
Sportalasia

Kuala Lumpur, May 13: Defending champions Indonesia joined China in the last four when they defeated England in a Yellow Group match tonight.

With the clean victory, Indonesia will brace themselves up for an exciting encounter against China on May 16 to decide who will become the group winner.

Both teams have achieved wins in matches against Sweden and England respectively.

England are now out of contention after slumping to their second consecutive loss. They were beaten 1-4 by China on Thursday.

Indonesia retained all the three singles lineup from their first match for tonight's encounter against England with the intention of securing an outright win.

And the players did not disappoint the estimated 500 Indonesian supporters who came tonight.

World no. 2 Hendrawan was stretched all the way in the opening match by England's Colin Haughton before persevering 15-8.

The determined Haughton tested Hendrawan's patience with some deceptive shots in the second game to level at 9-9. However, he eventually ran out luck and lost 15-12.

Next play was world number one pair Candra Wijaya-Tony Gunawan and they notched their third straight win over veteran pair Simon Archer-Nathan Robertson with an emphatic 15-12, 15-5.

Young Indonesian shuttler Taufik Hidayat also had no problem disposing Mark Constable to give the team the winning point.

He had Constable struggling all over the court before winning 15-6, 15-5.

Indonesian doubles pair Budi Antonius-Sigit Budiarto also made a winning debut when they defeated Anthony Clark-Ian Sullivan 15-6, 15-9 while Marleve Mainaky rounded it off against Michael Edge, winning 15-3, 15-5.

Indonesia's deputy team manager Hadi Nazri said that it was important for them to go all out to secure a clean win.

"The toughest match was in the first singles where Hendrawan took his time to settle down before overcoming his rival.

"We are happy that we have achieved that but there is still an important match at hand against China. There is no doubt we are looking forward to that match next week." 


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