KUNSHAN: Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong were the unlikely heroes as Malaysia secured a place in the Thomas Cup semi-finals.
On Thursday, the veteran shuttlers came alive to clinch the winning point in the 3-1 win over Taiwan in the quarter-finals at the Kunshan Sports Centre Gymnasium.
Malaysia will take on Denmark in semi-final on Friday. The Danish team led by Viktor Axelsen fought all the way to knock out defending champions Japan 3-2 in another intriguing quarter-final match.
Playing in the second doubles for the third time here, Kien Keat-Boon Heong overcame a five-point deficit in the second game to score a 21-16, 22-20 win over Chen Hung-ling-Wang Chi-lin.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong were congratulated by their team-mates – a sharp contrast to their downcast faces when they were surprisingly beaten 18-21, 21-13, 17-21 by unheralded Peter Briggs-Tom Wolfenden in Malaysia’s 4-1 win over England in their opening Group C match on Sunday.
The Malaysian No. 2 clinched their first win when they beat Mark Lamsfuss-Josche Zurwonne 21-15, 21-10 in Malaysia’s 5-0 win over Germany on Monday.
Malaysia, however, split up the two pairs with Kien Keat partnering Goh V Shem and Boon Heong combining with Tan Wee Kiong in the final group match against South Korea on Tuesday. Both the Malaysian pairs lost in straight games in the 3-2 win.
But 2014 runners-up Malaysia persisted with their strongest two pairs on Thursday and only Kien Keat-Boon Heong stood up and be counted.
Earlier, world No. 2 Lee Chong Wei gave Malaysia a flying start with a 21-18, 21-18 win over Chou Tien-chen. But Chong Wei’s good work came undone as Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong went down 21-16, 19-21, 19-21 to Lee Sheng-mu-Tsai Chia-hsin in the first doubles.
Debutant Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin again rose to the occasion with a clinical performance as he scored a 21-8, 21-13 win over Hsu Jen-hao to restore Malaysia’s lead.
Then came Kien Keat-Boon Heong to the fore to secure an unassailable 3-1 lead, saving Chong Wei Feng the energy of playing Wang Tzu-wei in the redundant third singles.
Malaysia will take on either defending champions Japan or Denmark in Friday’s semi-finals.
“We did not see ourselves as the heroes of the team. What mattered was we contributed a point and the team won in the end,” said Kien Keat, who became an independent shuttler after leaving the national team two years ago.
Badminton Association of Malaysia technical director Morten Frost was delighted with the hard-earned win.
“A lot of people thought we could easily wrap it up. But things can go wrong sometimes as we could lose the two doubles and one singles.
“We had a team talk in the morning. All of us agreed that the doubles pairs need to step up. As you can see it was tight in both the doubles,” said Frost.
The Dane was also full of praise for debutant Iskandar, who has now won all his three matches.
“His performance was fantastic,” enthused Frost.
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