[1]The Indian men’s squash team dished out a dominant performance as they beat Finland 3-0 to enter the pre-quarters of the world team championship in Mulhouse, France.
After the escape against Argentina, the eighth-seeded Indians made the bold choice of bringing in Ramit Tandon in place of Harinder Pal Sandhu. The gamble paid rich dividends as Tandon tamed the dangerous Henrik Mustonen in the opening encounter to set India on course for a straight-games win and top the Pool H.
The 22-year-old Mustonen was the heavy favourite going into the match, given his 36th world ranking, a whopping 196 places higher than Tandon.
Tandon showed no fear and went for the jugular, volleying brilliantly to give Mustonen the runaround.
The Indian wrapped up the first game in quick succession as a shell-shocked Mustonen tried to figure out what hit him in those opening minutes. There was no letting up from Tandon as he continued his attacking style, going for his volleys and backhand drops to torment the Finnish no.2.
Mustonen found some hope in the third game as Tandon lost his edge a little. The Finn took advantage of that little window of doubt to snatch the third game.
But Tandon put on display snap volleys to the front and backhand drops that was just out of reach of an exasperated Mustonen to settle the issue 3-1 in his favour.
Mahesh Mangaonkar was next on court and proved too powerful for Matias Tuomi.
Mahesh romped home in style, winning 11-4 11-7 11-7 to seal the win and a last-16 spot for the Indians, leaving Saurav Ghosal to play out a dead rubber.
Ghosal beat Olli Tuominen 3-1.
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