A historic day for the Indian contingent which bags one Silver and four Bronze medals: CWG 2022 Day 6 Roundup
The 2022 Commonwealth Games caravan enters into its sixth day as the sporting action is touching new heights day in, day out. Team Australia strengthens their pole position in the medal tally having a lead of seven Gold against the second-placed nation. Meanwhile, the English contingent becomes the second nation to cross the landmark of 100 medals in this edition and are chasing the Aussies bravely.
Team Blues added four Bronze and a solitary Silver medal to India’s helm from the campaign on the sixth day. However, they have slipped to the seventh position in the overall medal rankings as the likes of Scotland and South Africa have taken advantage of India’s barren speed of grabbing Gold. Hence ‘Parimatch News‘ brings you detailed reports of the performance of Team India on the Day 6 of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Cricket
The Indian queens of cricket march into the semifinal round of semifinal round after registering a humongous victory of 100 runs over the Barbados Women in the final fixture of the group stage. Barbados skipper Hayley Matthews won the toss and invited Harmanpreet Kaur and the company to bat first on the difficult wicket of Edgbaston. A 71-run partnership between Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues for the second wicket gave a robust start to the Indian innings.
The 21-year-old Jemimah who arrived at the crease during the second over stayed not out till the end of the innings scoring 56 runs off 46 balls and played a pivotal role in India’s prowess of posting a total of 162 on the board. In the second innings, the Barbadian side just looked helpless against the Indian bowling attack and could score only 62 runs even after playing the whole 20 overs. The Women in Blue are expected to take on England or New Zealand in the semi-final clash on Saturday.
Weightlifting
The weightlifting supremacy of the Indian contingent continues as the lifter Lovepreet Singh also joins the medal party. Lovepreet was competing in the Men’s 109 kg category and bagged the Bronze medal after lifting a grand total of 355 kg. He was on top of the table when he made his final clean and jerk attempt but was overthrown by the other two competitors and lost the silver medal by just a difference of three kgs.
Purnima Pandey who was competing in the Women’s 87+ kg category had a forgettable outcome from the event. Purnima lifted an aggregate weight of 228 kg (103 kg snatch + 125 kg in clean and jerk to finish sixth in the final standings. However, the sixth day of CWG also ended with another laurel as the Men’s 109+ kg lifter Gurdeep Singh finally claimed his long-awaited Bronze medal.
Hockey
The unstoppable Blue forces
Both of our Men’s and Women’s sides faced the same opponent today and both emerged victorious in their respective games. It kick-started with the Women’s encounter where the Blue Tigress managed to cruise past the Canadian opponent in a five-goal thriller. The scoreline was equal on 2-2 at the end of the third half and then a fourth-quarter winning goal from the Indian turned the tables.
Unlike Canada Women, the Men’s national team couldn’t even put up a fight and lost the battle against Men in Blues in a one-sided way. India went on to score eight goals against the Maple Leaves while the counterparts couldn’t even score a single goal throughout the 60 minutes of gameplay. This eight-goal victory took India to the pole position of their group as they will be advancing to the medal round as Pool B table-toppers.
Boxing
Triple good news for the Indian contingent from Boxing as three boxers in Nitu Ghanghas, Mohammad Hussamuddin, and Nikhat Zareen entered into the medal round of their respective category.
The 21-year-old Nitu was the first one to take one step closer to the podium finish after he made it to the semis of the Women’s 48 kg category after defeating the Northern Ireland opponent Nicole Clyde by ABD method.
Mohammad Hussamuddin who battling out in the Men’s 57 kg featherweight category also ensured a medal from his disciple after a 4-1 triumph in the quarter-final round.
Living up to the expectations, Nikhat Zareen has also booked her place in the semi-final stages of the Women’s 50 kg light flyweight category. The reigning IBA Women’s World Champion squashed Helena Jones of Wales in the QF tie by 5-0 and will be facing the English opponent Savannah Stubley in the penultimate round.
Judo
The path-maker!
The Indian Judoka Tulika may have missed the golden opportunity of becoming India’s first CWG gold medalist in this sport, but her triumph still counts as a great achievement. She had to satisfy with the silverware after losing against Sarah Adlington in the finals of the Women’s 78 kg event. Tulika was leading the battle by 1-0 and seemed to be comfortable with the lead but lost control in the dying moments and got knocked out by the Scottish Judoka.
Deepak Deswal also sweated out for the Indian flag in this game today but unfortunately couldn’t triumph to the podium. He lost his quarterfinal bout against the English opponent Harry Lovell-Hewitt and bowed out from the Gold and Silver medal contention. He then lost the repechages battle to Tevita Takayawa of Fiji and also got eliminated from the Bronze medal race.
Athletics
Tejaswin Shankar who was nowhere near the Commonwealth Games picture a month ago staged one of the most iconic comebacks of Indian sports history. He somehow received a last-minute call from the IOA and made it to the Indian Track & Field roster and conquested Bronze medal honour. Shankar clocked 2.22m to become the first Indian high jumper to win a medal at the commonwealth stages.
Manpreet Kaur who participated in the Women’s Shot Put crashed out of the final event. She finished last among the 12 participants of the final bout having attempted her best effort at a 15.59m distance.
Squash
The pair of Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu has entered the pre quarter-final stages of the mixed doubles event. The duo faced Sri Lanka’s Yeheni Kuruppu and Ravindu Laksiri in the Round of 32 battle and stormed into the last 16. Despite losing the first set by 8-11, the Indian pair quickly recovered from the early trail and went on to win the following two sets by 11-4 and 11-3.
The wait for India’s first medal at the 2022 Birmingham CWG is finally over as Saurav Ghosal’s triumph takes him to the podium. Ghosal registered a clean-sweep victory over the English opponent James Willstrop by 3-0 to claim the Bronze medal honour. Earlier, the veteran Kolkata-based hustler was defeated by the Kiwi squasher Paul Coll in the semis of the Men’s Singles event.