India's hopes of qualifying for the men's championship division were dashed when England put it across the Commonwealth Games champions 3-2 in the pre-quarterfinals at the world table tennis championship in Bremen, Germany.
Indian paddlers' fine form deserted them in the crucial tie as they failed to counter the spirited challenge by the young English players, specially Darius Knight who defied his low ranking to beat the Indian top two - Achanta Sharath Kamal and Soumyadeep Roy.
Roy tamely lost to Knight, ranked 259 spots behind him, 11-6 7-11 11-4 13-11 in the decider yesterday to seal India's fate.
However, it was Commonwealth Games gold medallist Achanta Sharath Kamal's loss to Knight in the second match that hurt India the most.
India started on a winning note with Roy thrashing Paul Drinkhall 11-3 9-11 11-9 11-9 in the first match but Knight pulled off a big upset when he tamed Sharath Kamal 11-6 6-11 12-10 12-10 to level the tie.
Andrew Baggely carried on the good work and got the better of national champion Shubhajit Saha 7-11 11-7 11-8 14-12.
Sharath Kamal then rekindled Indian hopes when he came back from the brink to score a 11-8 11-8 7-11 9-11 4-11 win over Drinkhall to put the onus on Roy in the decider.
But Roy failed to hold his nerve and went down 11-6 7-11 11-4 13-11 to Knight.
The adverse result against England was compounded when the Indians lost 2-3 to Argentina in their play-off match and will now take on Slovenia for the 35th place.
