Thomas Cup Finals: Malaysia stamps its supremacy over South Africa in group stage
Malaysia, as expected, ruled the court in opening match and outclassed South Africa in group stage of Thomas Cup Finals at Wuhan on May 21, 2012.
African shuttlers were no comparison to star-studded Malaysian squad as they had to face a 0-5 defeat.
On the other hand, the winning team did not show any mercy to lower ranked opponents and finished every game in just two sets.
The captain Lee Chong Wei set the ball rolling by winning first game against an unknown shuttler Jacob Malieka with 21-13 and 21-10 scores on the board.
However, World Number one shuttler did not bagged this victory easily as his challenger displayed good resisting skills in both sets.
In first segment, Jacob earned great deal of respect by reaching at a decent total of 13 points and then he proved his guts with a respectable performance in second set also.
After this early advantage, Malaysian campaigners did not look back and kept on raising their lead in following games.
The second Singles shuttler Daren Liew did not squander a golden chance to boost his confidence and he sealed a straight-set victory over Willem Viljoen by taking 24 minutes on the court.
World Number 33 shuttler registered concluding figures of 21-11 and 21-9 in two games and took his country one step close to first triumph in prestigious team event.
Next was veteran player Muhammad Hafiz Hashim who was suffering from a minor foot injury but even this wound could not stop him from excelling against Prakash Viyajanath of South Africa.
The Malaysian wrapped the show in just two sets by putting a convincing margin of 21-10 and 21-8.
Though, this 3-0 match score position was proof of their victory but they decided to go all the way to five games and sent prime couple Tan Boon Heong-Koo Kien Keat in court for first Doubles encounter.
Kien Keat and Boon Heong hardly found any trouble and raised their hands as victors after reading final totals of 21-8 and 21-12.
However, the second Doubles pair Lim Khim Wah-Goh V Shem had to face admirable resistance from Jacob Malieka-Prakash Viyajanath.
This last segment of first group match ended with World Number 25 duo putting 21-11 and 21-14 margin in its favour.
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