India CWG Birmingham: India off to a good start at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) as women’s hockey team thoroughly outplayed Ghana, men’s and women’s Table Tennis teams and boxer Shiva Thapa tasted win on day-one of the competitions.
The Indian women hockey team outplayed Ghana 5-0, scoring in every quarter of the game, but coach Janneke Schopman would be wary of some wastefulness in front of goal. For India defender Gurjit Kaur scored a double while Sangita Kumari, Salima Tete and Neha also got on the board.
Early in the day, the Indian women’s Table Tennis team led by world number 41 Manika Batra, beat South Africa by a comprehensive 3-0 margin.
Reeth Tennison and Sreeja Akula started the rout beating Danisha Patel and Lailaa Edwards in straight games in the doubles before Manika made short work of Musfiquh Kalam winning 11-5, 11-3 and 11-2 to give India a 2-0 lead.
Sreeja wrapped it up in the second singles with another convincing straight games victory (11-5, 11-3, 11-6) over Danisha Patel.
The Men’s team also had a similar result in their first Group 3 game as talisman Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai blanked Barbados by a 3-0 margin in the best of five tie.
Another good start came from the Boxing ring where former World Championship medallist Shiva Thapa looked in good form to beat Pakistan’s Suleman Baloch by a unanimous 5-0 margin in the 60-63kg (Light Welterweight) Round of 32 bout.
In the Badminton Mixed Team competition India emerged comfortable 5-0 winners in their first Group A game against Pakistan with stars like P V Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi easily winning their singles matches.
There was also some cheer for India in the Swimming pool as Srihari Natraj finished third in his heat to qualify for the semi-finals of the Men’s 100m Backstroke.
Two other Indians in action in the pool, Kushagra Rawat (Men’ 400m Freestyle) and Sajan Prakash (Men’s 50m Butterfly) however finished at the bottom of the pile in their heats.
Disappointment also came India’s way in the cricket field as the women’s cricket team went down to Australia in a tight T20 game, a historic first in the history of the CWG.
Batting first, India scored 154/8 riding on a brilliant half-century by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. The Aussies won the Group A game by three wickets in the end with Ashleigh Gardner playing a blinder (52 no in 35 balls) to see her side through.
In Lawn Bowls action India’s Tania Choudhury lost both her Round one and two games as did the Men’s Triples Team of Navneet Singh, Mridul Borgohain and Chandan Kumar Singh.
The Men’s Pair of Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar also found the going tough against Malaysia.
India had a tough outing in Cycling Velodrome as the teams in the Men’s 4000m Team Pursuit finishing sixth, Women’s Team Sprint finishing seventh and the one in the Men’s Team Sprint, ending in sixth position.
(With UNI inputs)
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