The 24-year-old US-settled Indian made a professional return to the court after a stomach bug kept him off the first two days of the tie and thrashed Dustov 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 after Rohan Bopanna lost a five-setter he should have won in straight sets against Denis Istomin.

Bopanna, in a shocking reversal of form, lost the last three sets and the match at 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (1), 6-8 to make level the tie 2-2 and Prakash had to deliver under trying circumstances.

India had won 17 straight ties against Japan until the latter won their last clash in the Asia-Oceania Group I semifinal in 2004.

Call it intuition or a master stroke, non-playing captain kept Prakash for the fifth rubber and just as well. What appeared to be a smooth sailing for india when RohanBopanna took the first two sets against Istominin the first reverse singles no one ever thought Prakash will have to come out and provide the clincher.

The junior Amritraj come up with a clinical performance against the better-ranked Dustov. Even when he dropped the second set, there was no hint of any panic in the Indian camp as he regained his touch to walk away with the match.

It was neck and between the two players in first set till the eighth game when Amritraj had two break points, but after squandering one, jumped on to the next with a soft touch at the to go up 5-3. He then closed the set with a solid service game.

Amritraj hustled the Dustov with the his frequent forays to the net, but the 6 feet 5 inches tall Uzbek came out with fire in the second set as he broke Amritraj in the eighth game, setting up the point with a great backhand cross court pass and then his opponent helped him with a double fault. Then Dustov had to hold his serve which he did easily.

After losing the second set, Amritraj made a strong comeback in the next with an early break and then played percentage tennis to hold his serve without any problems to go two sets to one up.

Dustov, who appeared to have learnt a thing or two about grasscourt play in his match against Bopanna, improved as the match progressed.

However, his approach to grass was not good enough to reverse the result as he also looked tired playing for the third day running.

He seems to have lost the heart to fight back after he dropped his sefve in the fifth game of the fourth set. He was broken again in his next service game and it was all over for the Uzbek. This despite Dustov serving reasonably well, firing 12 aces to Amritraj’s two, though they had four double faults each.

After Amritraj scored the winning point, non-playing captain Leander Paes rushed on to the court and lifted the hero. His team-mates also joined the party.

Earlier, Istomin made a remarkable comeback to down Bopanna in a marathon five-setter.

The 184th ranked Uzbek stunned the home crowd, defeating in-form Bopanna in three hours ten minutes.

Bopanna started the match from where he left off Friday as he cruised to a two sets lead against an indifferent Istomin.

Though Bopanna pocked the first two sets easily, he was inconsistent with his serve and returns, unlike in the match against Dustov. He looked in a hurry to finish the match and was on course too when he broke Istomin in the first game. of the third set. All of a sudden he had lapsed into all manner of errors and his netplay has also nosedived.

The 184th ranked Uzbek broke Bopanna’s serve back-to-back in the eighth and then in the tenth to take the third set 6-4 and he was back in the match.

In the next set, Bopanna broke in the very first game but squandered the advantage again as Istomin broke back in the next. From then on games went with serve and in the tie-breaker, the Uzbek found little resistance from the Indian and won 7-1.

Istomin’s experience in the professional circuit and solid baseline play proved too lethal for Bopanna as he broke the Indian in the 13th game of the deciding set with a great backhand crosscourt return on second serve and then held onto his service game to take the set 8-6 and square the tie 2-2.

The 27-year-old Bangalorean fired 15 aces, but he negated it with 16 double faults, while Istomin had 11 aces and three double faults.

In the 13th game of the decider, Bopanna committed two double faults and gift the set and match.

The top Uzbek player kept his cool throughout the match, in spite of some line calls going against him.