Indian wrestlers shine with three gold medals, Men’s hockey team and Women’s cricket team progress to final, athletes clinch historic silver medals: CWG 2022 Day 9 Roundup

India won medals in athletics, wrestling, boxing, and lawn bowls on Day 9 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, while the men’s hockey team advanced to the final and the women’s cricket team also advanced to the gold medal match.

Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Ravi Dahiya, and Naveen were among those to finish on top of the podium on Saturday, while race walker Priyanka Goswami and steeplechaser Avinash Sable opened the contingent’s account on the day, both winning silver.

Here’s a rundown of all the major Indian results from Day 9 of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 –

Wrestling

Vinesh Phogat completed a hat-trick of CWG gold medals, while Ravi Dahiya also went unopposed as Indian wrestlers finished their campaign with a hefty haul of 12 medals. Overall, India has won six gold, one silver and five bronze medals.

Naveen (74kg) won India’s third gold medal in wrestling, defeating Pakistan’s Tahir Muhammad Sharif 9-0 in the final.

Pooja Gehlot won bronze in the women’s 50kg, while Pooja Sihag (76kg) won bronze by beating Australia’s Naomi de Bruine on technical superiority.

In the final Indian bout of the competition, Deepak Nehra (97kg) defeated Pakistan’s Tayab Raza 10-2 in the bronze play-off, ensuring the country’s success in the wrestling competition.

Athletics

Both race walker Priyanka Goswami and steeplechaser Avinash Sable brought home silver medals for India’s athletics contingent.

In the 10km race walk, Priyanka won India’s first CWG medal, while Sable was the first Indian to finish on the podium in the 3000m steeplechase.

Priyanka set a new Indian national record of 43:38.82, improving on her previous personal best of 48:30.35 by nearly five minutes.

Sable became the first non-Kenyan to win a medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games in 1994, and he set a national record with a personal best time of 8:11.20.

The women’s 4x100m relay team also advanced to the final on Sunday, finishing second in their heat in 44.45 seconds. Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Shrbani Nanda, and NS Simi will now appear in the final on Sunday at 5:24 pm.

Lawn Bowls

Northern Ireland defeated India in the gold medal match of the lawn bowls event at the Commonwealth Games, earning India its second medal. The final tally was 18-5. Sunil Bahadur (first), Navneet Singh (second), Chandan Kumar Singh (third), and Dinesh Kumar made up the Indian team (skip).

Boxing

Reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen, Amit Panghal, Nitu Ghanghas and Sagar Ahlawat entered the finals of the Commonwealth Games on Saturday.

Nikhat advanced to the women’s 50kg gold medal match after defeating England’s Stubley Alfia Savannah 5-0. Panghal (51kg) also showed class as he advanced to his second consecutive CWG final.

Meanwhile, Sagar advanced to the gold medal round with a unanimous 5-0 victory over Nigeria’s Ifeanyi Onyekwere in the day’s penultimate bout. Nitu Ghanghas (48kg) also remained on track for a gold medal in her debut.

Jaismine Lamboria (60kg), Rohit Tokas, and Muhammed Hussamuddin all finished with bronze medals after losing their semi-finals.

Cricket

Smriti Mandhana’s half-century and Sneh Rana’s brilliant bowling performance helped India beat England by 4 runs and advance to the gold medal match of the first-ever women’s T20 event in the Commonwealth Games.

England was cruising at 132/3, needing 165 to win, and the hosts needed only 33 runs off 24 balls, but off-spinner Rana (4-0-28-2) bowled extremely well. She only gave up three runs in the 18th and nine runs in the final over.

England finished at 160 for 6, with Harmanpreet Kaur’s team exacting sweet revenge for their defeat in the 2017 ODI World Cup final at Lord’s.

Table Tennis

40-year-old paddler Sharath Kamal continued his sensational run by reaching the finals of both the men’s and mixed doubles events, ensuring India at least two more medals.

Sharath and G Sathiyan won the men’s doubles semi-final 3-2 (11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 12-14, 11-7) against Australians Nicholas Lum and Finn Luu. In the gold medal match, the Indian duo will face England’s Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford.

Sharath then teamed up with the young Sreeja Akula to defeat the Australian duo of Nicholas Lum and Minhyung Jee 3-2 in the mixed doubles final.

Sreeja also performed admirably in the women’s singles before succumbing 3-4 to Singapore’s Tianwei Feng. In a tense semi-final, Akula fell to Feng 6-11 11-8 11-6 9-11 8-11 11-8 10-12.

However, Manika Batra’s campaign at the showpiece came to an end in the quarterfinals when she and her women’s doubles partner Diya Parag Chitale were defeated 1-3 by Wales’ pairing of Charlotte Carey and Anna Hursey. Manika had won four medals, two of which were gold, on the Gold Coast, but she will have to return empty-handed from Birmingham after failing to reach the podium in a single event.

Hockey

Olympic bronze medallists India beat South Africa 3-2 to qualify for the men’s hockey final. India’s goals came from Abhishek (20th), Mandeep Singh (28th), and Jugraj Singh (58th), while South Africa’s goals came from Ryan Julius (33rd) and Mustapha Cassiem (59th). The final will now be played against Australia on Monday at 5 p.m. IST.

Badminton

Young Lakshya Sen recorded another comfortable win but double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had to work hard to enter the badminton semi-finals on Saturday.

The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who had claimed a silver medal in 2018, also moved into the semi-finals as did the young women’s combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly.

World number 10 Sen beat Mauritius’ Julien Georges Paul 21-12 21-11 after Sindhu beat Malaysia’s Goh Wei Jin 19-21, 21-14, 21-18 and Srikanth defeated England’s Toby Penty 21-19, 21-17.

Satwik and Chirag, ranked 7th in the world, prevailed 21-19 21-11 over Australia’s Jacob Schueler and Nathan Tang, while Gayatri and Treesa beat Jamaica’s Katherine Jam and Tahila Richarson 21-8 21-6 in another lop-sided contest.

Squash

Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal of India lost 0-2 in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles event to New Zealand’s Joelle King and Paul Coll, and will now compete for bronze on Sunday. The Indians were defeated 7-11, 4-11.

Earlier in the day, the men’s doubles team of Velavan Senthilkumar and Abhay Singh were defeated 8-11 8-11 by Malaysians Ng Eain Yow and Yuen Chee Wern.