Indian Women’s Cricket Team loses on CWG debut but Hockey, Badminton, and Table Tennis sides triumphed: CWG 2022 Day 1 Roundup
The mega event which all sports fans and followers of commonwealth nations were eagerly waiting for is finally here. The caravan of the 2022 Commonwealth Games commences in Birmingham city of Great Britain as athletes from these groups of countries have begun their medal hunt. The Day 1 of the 2022 CWG brought us many cherishable sporting moments and intense games which will be remembered by the fans for a long time.
The Indian contingent participating in this mega event also kick-started their campaign through individual and team events right from Day 1. Hence ‘Parimatch News‘ brings you detailed reports of the performance of Team India on the opening day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Badminton
The India shuttlers kick-started the mixed team event with a bang by a clean-sweep 5-0 victory over the arch-rivals Pakistan. The encounter began with a mixed tie between India’s B. Sumeth Reddy & Ashwini Ponnappa and Pakistan’s Muhammad Bhatti and Ghazala Siddique where the Indian duo emerged victorious on a final scoreline 21-9 and 21-12.
Then the Indian singles star Kidambi Srikanth stepped onto the battlefield after a long time and defeated Murad Ali by 21-7 and 21-12 in straight sets. Two-time Olympic medalist and India’s flag-bearer PV Sindhu took the field in the third tie and registered a convincing victory over the South Asian Games Bronze medalist Mahoor Shehzad.
The recent Thoman Cup-winning Men’s Doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also joined the bandwagon with a 21-12 and 21-9 win over the opponent Murad Ali and Muhammad Bhatti. The encounter was consummated with Women’s Doubles representatives Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand winning the fifth tie on the final scoreline of 21-4 and 21-5.
Boxing
Indian star boxer Shiva Thapa who got knocked out in the round of 16 of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and also missed the qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is in the mood of writing off previous records to have a fresh start. He registered an emphatic win over the neighbouring opponent from Pakistan in a Round of 32 bouts.
Thapa defeated Suleman Baloch in the 63.5kg category bout on a 5-0 overall count. He will now be heading to the Round of 16 where he will face the World Championship Bronze medalist boxer Reese Lynch from Scotland.
Cricket
An unexpected start to the Commonwealth Games for the Indian Women’s Cricket Team
The debut fixture of the India National Women’s Team ended on a dejected note as the Tigress in Blue lost the battle against five-time 20-over world champions Australia Women. It was also the first cricket match being played at the Commonwealth Games since 1998 CWG Malaysia where a one-off event was held between Men’s List A sides. The Southern Stars register a minimal margined 3-wicket victory over the Indian Women in a nail-biting thriller at the Edgbaston.
While batting first, the Indian team posted a competitive total of 154 for eight wickets with the help of teenager Shefali Verma’s 48-run fighting stand and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s diligent half-century.
In reply, Australia chased it down inside 19 overs starring the all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner who played an unbeaten knock of 52 off 35 balls and remained on the pitch till the last ball. After this defeat, the remaining fixtures against arch-rivals Pakistan and Barbados are now must-win games for the Blue Tigress in order to qualify for the medal round.
Hockey
The Indian Women’s Hockey team is on the trot of the medal after handing a thumping defeat to the Ghana side in their opening Group A fixture. The Women in Blue kick-started the gameplay with an early lead after the drag-flick specialist Gurjit Kaur’s thunderous strike. Then another goal in the second quarter doubled the lead for India before the half-time whistle was blown.
The third quarter began with Indian player Sangita Kumari putting her name onto the scoresheet to make it three. In the same quarter, the Blues were awarded a penalty stroke which was converted successfully by Gurjit Kaur who bagged her second goal of the match. Then the final goal of the game came from Salima Tete’s deflected strike which ended the action on a one-sided scoreline of 5-0.
Squash
The 14-year-old sensation Anahat Singh has made global headlines by defeating Jada Ross from Saint Vincent and Grenadines in the Round of 64 of Women’s Singles. Not only defeated but moreover, Anahat completely dominated Ross after winning in straight sets by 11-5, 11-2 and 11-0. The teenage Squash prodigy is the youngest member of the Indian contingent touring Birmingham for the 2022 CWG.
Meanwhile, Abhay Singh also kicked off his CWG campaign with a style after his dominating victory over Joe Chapman from the British Virgin Islands by 3-0. Abhay defeated the Caribbean opponent by 11-5, 11-5 and 11-5 in straight sets to proceed to the Men’s Singles Preliminary Round Of 32.
Swimming
When the whole country was having a good sleep, the 21-year-old Bengaluru swimmer Srihari Nataraj was thriving there, sweating out to make India proud. Nataraj has made his way into the finals of Men’s 100m Backstroke after a 4th-place finish in his Semis Heat. He clocked 54.55 seconds in his Semis Heat and is ready to storm into the final and aim for laurels on Sunday.
Nataraj was able to make it to the next round but other renowned swimmers were unable to achieve it. Sajan Prakash finished in last place with a timing of 25.01 seconds in the initial round of the Men’s 50m butterfly event. Meanwhile, Kushagra Rawat also came last in the Men’s 400m freestyle event clocking 3:57.45 and will have to prepare another attempt for the medal in another event.
Table Tennis
A dominant day for Team India in Table Tennis
Indian Women’s kick-started the Commonwealth Games campaign on a great note by whitewashing their opponents twice on the opening day of the event. They first hammered South Africa on a 3-0 scoreline after Reeth Tennison & Sreeja Akula won the doubles event and the singles events were won by Manika Batra and Akula.
In their second game of the day, India Women registered a 3-0 win over Fiji where Diya Chitale, Akula and Batra participated and emerged victorious as well.
On the other hand, the Indian Men’s Team also followed the footsteps of the females by registering two whitewash victories in both Group 3 fixtures on an opening day. The Men in Blue squashed the Barbados side in the first game as they bagged victory in all three battles through their three trump cards Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Achanta Sharath Kamal.
Then they went on to register another win by 3-0 over Singapore to wrap the Day 1 action as the group of participants and winners from India remained the same.
Triathlon
The Triathlon action of Day 1 began with Individual Sprint Distance final events for Men’s and Women’s teams. The Indian team is taking part in this game at the CWG event for the first time but unfortunately failed to make an impression in their maiden appearance. From the Men’s unit, Adarsh MS finished his sprint on the 30th while Vishwanath Anand stayed in the 33rd position at the end.
In the Women’s segment Sanjana Joshi was close to the Top 20 after the Swim Leg but finished the race in the 28th position at 1:09:00. The South Asian Games double-medalist Pragnya Mohan was the best performing triathlete from the Indian contingent finishing on the 26th spot with 1:07:27.