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The Indian contingent had a good start to their Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 on Friday (29 July). However, there were a few heartbreaks for cricket fans. But the performances in other games like Hockey, Badminton, and Table Tennis helped India to get fine confidence under their belt.
Table Tennis
The Indian Table Tennis women's team secured a 11-5, 11-3, 11-6 victory to beat South Africa in a comfortable fashion. Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra were terrific with their performances to help India to win the first round 3-0. Furthermore, India men’s team won 3-0 against the Barbados team in their tournament opener.
Afterwards, India women's team stormed into the quarter-finals by beating Fiji Islands 3-0.
Cricket
India squared up against World Champions Australia in the first game of the event. The contributions from Shafali Verma (48) and Harmanpreet Kaur (52) helped India to post a fighting total of 154. Then, pacer Renuka Singh Thakur was sensational with her performance, taking four wickets. However, Ashleigh Gardner (52*) and Grace Harris (37) paved the way for Australia to win a thriller by three wickets.
Swimming
Kushagra Rawat finished in the last (8th) position, taking a time of 3:57:45 in Heat 3 of the men's 400m Freestyle. Sajan Prakash also failed to qualify by ending at eighth position in the men’s 50m butterfly. However, Srihari Natraj enhanced medal hopes by finishing third in the 100m backstroke heats.
Cycling
The double blow hit India’s cycling contingent. They failed to reach the next round of the men's 4000m and men’s 400m events.
Triathlon
Muralidharan and Vishwanath Yadav finished in 30th and 33rd positions in Triathlon.
Hockey
India women’s hockey team thrashed Ghana 5-0 in their first league match. Gurjit Kaur, Neha, Sangita Kumari and Salima Tete were the goal scorers for Women in Blue.
Badminton
Indian Badminton team dominated Pakistan to beat them 5-0 in mixed team event. The duo of B Sumeeth Reddy and Machimanda Ponnappa started the campaign with a 21-9, 21-12 win against Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti and Ghazala Siddique.
Then Kidambi Srikant registered a comprehensive 21-7, 21-12 win against Murad Ali.
Then PV Sindhu grab a dominant 21-7, 21-6 win over Mahoor Shahzad.
In the fifth and final match, Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand beat Mahoor Shahzad/Ghazala Siddique 21-4, 21-5 in women's doubles.
Lawn Balls
One of the oldest sports in the CWG is being played in four formats, singles, pairs, triples and fours. In the Men's Pairs - Section C (Round 1), India lost 14-17 to the Malaysia team.