Vikas, Dinesh in finals; Bronze for Suranjoy

On a day that saw mixed results for India, teen sensation Vikas Krishan (60kg) and Dinesh Kumar (81kg) made their way into the finals with comprehensive wins but two other Indians had to settle for bronze medals at the Asian Games boxing semi-finals in Guangzhou on Wednesday.

Eighteen-year-old Vikas outwitted Uzbekistan's Hurshid Tojibaev 7-0 to make the finals where he will face China's Qing Hu.

Later, Dinesh also had little trouble in dispatching Nepal's Deepak Maharjan 7-1 and set up a final clash against Uzbekistan's Elshod Rasulov.

However, Commonwealth Games gold medallists Suranjoy Singh (51kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) had to be content with bronze medals after losing in the semi-finals in contrasting fashions.

While Suranjoy lost 5-6 to China's Chang Yong in a thriller-of-a-contest, Samota was all at sea against Zhilei Zhang before the referee stopped the contest midway through the third round and awarded the bout to the home favourite.

Suranjoy was the first to enter the ring for India in the men's competition and was 0-3 down against Yong in the opening round.

But the 24-year-old Manipuri, who has won seven international gold medals since April 2009, roared back with his trademark left hooks to make it 5-5 in the second round.

In the third round, the diminutive Manipuri, nicknamed Chhota Tyson, was unlucky not to get points for some body blows even as Yong managed to land the all-important scoring punch to just about edge past Suranjoy.

Next up was Vikas and he ensured that smiles returned to the Indian camp with a composed performance in which he mixed caution with aggression.

The World Youth Champion and Youth Olympics bronze medallist showed fantastic temperament against his more experienced opponent.

With a water-tight defence, the Haryana-lad mostly counter-attacked, even letting his guard down on a few occasions to trap his rival.

Vikas took a solid 3-0 lead in the opening round, added another point in the second and sealed it with three more in the final round.

Then came Dinesh; he was expectedly dominant against his Nepali rival, who found it extremely tough to match the Indian's height and reach.

The 23-year-old six-footer from Haryana landed some telling straight blows which never allowed Maharjan to claw back into the bout.

In contrast, Samota was no match for the taller and stronger Zhang, who never really allowed the Indian to attack.

Samota kept a shell-guard to counter that but Zhang managed to penetrate his defence with ease before the referee ended the contest in favour of the home team boxer.