CWG 2022 Day 1 Wrap: 14-Year-Old Anahat Wins; Shuttlers & Paddlers Also Advance
Commonwealth Games 2022: 14-year-old Anahat Singh kicked off her campaign with a 3-0 win.
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Victories for the badminton mixed team, table-tennis' women's and men's teams and also the Indian hockey team got Day 1 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games off to the perfect start for India, but the best was saved for the very end of the day when 14-year-old Anahat Singh won her opening women's singles squash match.
The one fumble was in cricket with Harmanpreet Kaur's team losing to Australia by 3 wickets in what was women's cricket's debut match in the Commonwealth Games.
Here is a wrap of India's results from Day 1.
India Lose to Australia Despite Renuka’s Heroics
India pacer Renuka Singh's dream spell of four wickets for 18 did not prove to be enough as Australia came back from the brink to pull off a three-wicket win in the Commonwealth Games Group A women's cricket opener on Friday.
Chasing 155, Renuka helped India reduce Australia to 49 for 5 but Ashleigh Gardner (52 not out off 35 balls) played game-changing knocks of 51 and 47 with Grace Harris (37) and Alana King (18 not out) respectively to take Australia home.
Earlier, Indian openers Shafali Verma (48 off 33) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (52 off 34) entertained the Edgbaston crowd but the other batters disappointed.
Women’s Hockey Team beat Minnows Ghana 5-0
The Indian women’s hockey side started their campaign with a 5-0 win over in the Pool A Commonwealth Games opener on Friday.
India rode on Gurjit Kaur’s (3rd, 39th minute) brace, while Neha Goyal (28th), Sangita Kumari (36th) and Salima Tete (56th) scored one goal each.
However, India led by goalkeeper Savita Punia were far from impressive, wasting lot of scoring opportunities against a weaker opponent. India will next face Wales in their second group match on Saturday.
Shuttlers Sindhu, Srikanth Star as India Beat Pakistan 5-0
India's fancied shuttlers didn't break into much of a sweat on their way to completing a 5-0 sweep of Pakistan in their badminton mixed team opener at the 22nd Commonwealth Games on Friday.
B Sumeeth Reddy and Machimanda Ponnappa started the proceedings for India with a comfortable 21-9, 21-12 win over Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti and Ghazala Siddique in their mixed doubles clash.
This was followed by a 21-7, 21-12 win by Kidambi Srikanth over Murad Ali in the men's singles match. Olympic medallist PV Sindhu made it 3-0 with a 21-7, 21-6 dominant win over Mahoor Shahzad in women's singles.
In the fourth match, men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got the better of Murad Ali and Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti 21-12, 21-9 winners.
In the final women's doubles match, India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crushed Mahoor Shahzad and Ghazala Siddique 21-4, 21-5.
Shiva Thapa Sails to Pre-quarters in Boxing
Ace Indian boxer Shiva Thapa began his Commonwealth Games campaign on a dominant note, defeating Pakistan's Suleman Baloch in the first round of the 63.5kg category on Friday.
The 28-year-old Thapa had a rather easy outing, winning 5-0 against Baloch to move to the pre-quarterfinals of the light welter weight.
TT: Indian Men Blank Barbados; Women Crush South Africa and Fiji
India's men and women table tennis teams started their campaigns with identical 3-0 victories over Barbados, South Africa and Fiji in the Commonwealth Games on Friday.
In the men’s encounter, Harmeet Desai and G Sathiyan thumped Barbados’ Kevin Farley and Tyrese Knight 11-9, 11-9, 11-4 while veteran Sharath Kamal made short work of Ramon Maxwell 11-5, 11-3, 11-3. Sathiyan then hardly broke a sweat before disposing off Tyrese Knight 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 to seal the tie.
In the women's event, Sreeja Akula and Reeth Tennison beat South African pair of Lailaa Edwards and Danisha Patel 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 to hand India the lead. Then, poster girl of Indian table tennis, Manika Batra, thrashed Musfique Kalam 11-5, 11-3, 11-2 in the first singles match. Akula then came back and secured an 11-5, 11-3, 11-6 win over Patel in the second singles. Later, the women crushed Fiji 3-0 in their second group match.
Young Anahat Wins Squash Singles Opener
14-year-old Anahat Singh started her campaign on a bright note with an easy 3-0 win over Jada Ross of St Vincent and Grenadine in her opening match of the women’s singles event in Birmingham on Friday.
The teenage star from Delhi won the first set 11-5, second set 11-2 and recorded an easy 11-0 win in the third and final set over her 20-year-old opponent.
Disappointing Outings for India in Cycling, Lawn Bowls and Triathletes
Indian cyclists failed to qualify for finals in three team events at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday. They failed to progress into the finals of the men’s 4000m Team Pursuit, women’s Team Sprint, and men’s Team Sprint events respectively.
Meanwhile, women’s singles player Tania Choudhary and men's triples team suffered twin losses each on the opening day of lawn bowl competitions on the same day.
In triathlon, India’s Adarsh Muralidharan Nair finished a lowly 30th while countrymate Vishwanath Yadav ended up three places below Adarsh in the men’s individual (sprint distance) final. In the women’s individual (sprint distance) final, on the other hand, Pragnya Mohan and Sanjana Sunil Joshi finished 24th and 28th resepctively.
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