India booked a berth in the Thomas Cup badminton finals by upsetting Hong Kong 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at its Asian Zone qualifiers in Jaipur.

Chetan Anand, Anoop Sridhar and a duo of Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave displayed brilliant skills to carve out the narrow win to storm into the finals of the World Team Badminton Championship to be played in Japan [Images] in May.

India has reached the final only for the third time after playing at the top level in 1988 and 2000.

India, pitched in group 'C' in the Asian zone qualifiers had defeated Singapore with a 4-1 margin yesterday and put up a fighting performance to outclass Hong Kong to become one of the four top teams qualifying from the toughest Asian Zone.

Indian women, however, missed the bus as they could not match the guiles of Singapore girls and bowed out 0-5 in last match on Friday.

It was the men's team which gave a heartening display.

Top ranked Indian shuttler Chetan Anand started the tide by beating Ng Wei, a higher ranked player in a gruelling encounter.