March 16th TheStar THE bets are on top seeds Malaysia meeting defending champions England in the badminton mixed team final with the tie going down the wire. But India, after a creditable showing in the Thomas-Uber Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournament in Jaipur last month, are quietly confident that they will be able to upset the formbook in the competition, which begins today at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Their men did well to qualify for the Thomas Cup Finals, which will be played in Japan from April 28-May 7. Their women, led by Aparna Popat, failed to make the grade for the Uber Cup Final but they chalked up several upset victories in their matches. India coach Vimal Kumar said that his team and Singapore were the dark horses in the competition. “Malaysia are the heavy favourites for the team gold medal. England are the other strong contenders,” said Vimal. “We are in the same group as England and I do not rule out our chances of scoring an upset win over them. I would rate our chances at 40-60. “Both our men's and women's players have showed improvement. It was a great achievement for our men to qualify for the Thomas Cup Finals. The women, among them Trupti Murgunde, did well to upset Wong Mew Choo (the Malaysian number one) in the Uber Cup qualifiers.” A total of 18 teams have been divided into four groups. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals. England and India are tipped to advance from Group D and their opponents in the quarter-finals are the qualifiers from Group C, which has Singapore as the favourites to emerge as the winners. “Singapore have strong women players and they can turn the tide for the team. They cannot be under-estimated,” said Vimal. “We will be satisfied if we can get among the medals in the badminton competitions. We are not only targeting a medal in the mixed team but also in the individual competitions.” India's first gold medallist in Commonwealth Games badminton was Prakash Padukone – in Edmonton in 1978. In the opening group ties today, India will take on Trinidad and Tobago while Malaysia open their campaign in Group A against Fiji.
