KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia advanced to the last-16 of the Men's World Team Squash Championship after beating Austria 3-0 to finish top of Pool H in Marseille on Wednesday.
It was the national team's second win in as many ties after Tuesday's 2-1 upset of eighth seeds India.
Just as he had done against India, national No 1 Nafiizwan Adnan again led the way by putting Malaysia in the lead with a testing 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3, 11-4 win over Aqeel Rahman in 53 minutes.
Rehman played well above his ranking of 106th in the world suggests but was eventually worn down by World No 31 Nafiizwan, who also came back from a similar deficit against Saurav Ghosal on Tuesday to win in five games.
Ng Eain Yow, who delivered the winning point against India, established an unassailable 2-0 lead by beating Jakob Dirnberger 11-7, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7 in 36 minutes.
Addeen Idrakie Bahtiar, making his tournament debut in place of Syafiq Kamal, wrapped up the tie with an 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 win in 25 minutes over Lukas Windischberger.
The result eliminated Austria with India advancing to the knockout stage as pool runners-up.
Malaysia will meet either Scotland or Jamaica from Pool G in the second round on Thursday with the winner advancing to the quarter-finals facing top seeds Egypt or defending champions England, depending on the draw.