It took third singles player Lee Zii Jia to deliver the winning point by defeating Nadeem Dalvi after England led twice following a poor show by Justin Hoh and Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin in the first two singles matches, losing to their much lower-ranked English rivals.

Malaysia had fallen behind in the two earlier singles matches, before top doubles pairs Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun cancelled England’s lead twice, allowing veteran Zii Jia to come to the rescue in the final match.

Zii Jia’s victory keeps alive Malaysia’s hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Malaysia will play Finland on Monday and barring a major upset, they should be booking a quarter-final berth with a win. They will take on Japan in the final Group B match on Wednesday.

After Harry Huang beat Justin Hoh 21-19, 21-19 in 49 minutes to give England a 1-0 lead, world No 2 pair Aaron-Wooi Yik beat Oliver Butler-Samuel Jones 21-19, 21-13 in just 33 minutes to level the score at 1-1.

It is not known why Malaysia rested their top singles player Leong Jun Hao.

Aidil Sholeh, who came in at second singles, lost to Cholan Kayan 16-21, 15-21 in 42 minutes, allowing England to lead 2-1.

Wei Chong-Kai Wun cancelled England’s lead once again when they beat Alex Green-Zach Russ 21-14, 21-14 to make the score 2-2 before Zii Jia sealed the issue for Malaysia.

This is the first time Malaysia has beaten England by such a narrow margin. In five previous meetings, the score was always 5-0, except for one in which England lost 1-4.