China, richly reaping the dividends of a grassroots programme which has seen bridge being introduced as a school subject, cut the flight of Indian hopefuls Raja's, 106-100 on Table One. On the adjacent table, last year's runner-up Indonesia, preparing a dream team for the 2001 Bermuda Bowl which that country will host, completely outplayed the sole European team left in the draw, Denmark. The 122-73 scoreline says it all.

The Chinese squad (Shi Haojun, Dai Jianming, Cao Xueliang, Yang Lixin, An Yangbo) had to draw deeply from their resources, which saw them claiming the inaugural IOC Grand Prix at Lausanne last September, to quellan upbeat Raja's.

The Indian team (Rajesh Dalal, Jaggy Shivdasani, Anil Padhye, Anand Mehta, Santanu Ghose), who had barely qualified for the quarter-final yesterday, demonstrated the promise India carries in the sport by knocking out top seeds and former world champions Poland 96-66 today morning. Then again, they ran China close in the semi-final, trailing 25-39 and 29-32 in the first two rounds. They won the third round 46-35, but fell six short of China in the cumulative tally.

The Indonesians (Munawar Sawiruddin, Hengky Lasut, Eddy Manoppo, Denny Sacul, Franky Karwuf, Noldy George, Taufik Asbi) easily wiped off the 8.5 carry-over Denmark (PG Eliasson, Tomas Magnusson, Lauge Schaffer and Mathias Bruun) enjoyed and won the three rounds 24-13, 58-20, 40-31. The winners had accounted for Indian squad Ingersoll Rand in the quarter-final.

RESULTS

Semi-finals: Indonesia bt Denmark 122-73; China bt Raja's 106-100; Quarter-finals: Raja's bt Poland 96-66 (33-21, 21-15, 42-30); China bt Sweden125-64 (60-17+5, 27-13, 38-29); Indonesia bt Ingersoll Rand (34-39, 44-10, 78-49); Denmark bt England (56+5.5-11, 32-19, England withdrew).