India just about managed to cling to men's second division berth after finishing 35th following their 3-2 win against Slovenia in a play-off match at the World Table Tennis championship in Bremen, Germany.
An off-colour India was stretched to the decider by minnows Slovenia but Soumyadeep Roy clinched the last match 3-1 against Bojan Ropasa to arrest India's slide to the third division.
It was a disappointing end to India's campaign as the Commonwealth Games gold medal winning team had gone into the championship confident of crossing the hurdle and earn a promotion to the top division.
But the pre-quarterfinal loss against a young English side dashed their hopes.
In the 35th place play-off match against Slovenia on Sunday, Achanta Sharath Kamal won two matches as India's no. 2 paddler Soumyadeep Roy lost to Sas Lasan and rookie Jitender Kumar went down to Mitja Horvat.
India started on a disastrous note as an out-of-form Roy lost 11-7, 11-4, 11-4 to Lasan in the first match before Sharath Kamal got the better of Bojan Roposa 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 to restore parity.
Jitender Kumar, who was playing his first match of the mega event, failed to make the most of the opportunity and went down 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9 to Horvat to hand over a 2-1 advantage to Slovenia.
Sharath Kamal brought relief to the camp after he downed Sas 11-4, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6 to take the tie to the decider.
Roy lost the first game but kept his nerves and bounced back to put it across Roposa 8-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-9.
