India@Asiad: Defending champs make winning start in kabaddi; men blank Maldives in badminton

The Indian kabaddi contingent made an impressive start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games with the women's team mauling Japan and the men's side beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Jakarta on Sunday.

Indian men's and women's teams had clinched the gold medal in the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea and both the sides, on Sunday, dished out brilliant performances to make a winning start.

The men's team outclassed Sri Lanka 44-28 in the second Group A match after opening its campaign with a 50-21 win over Bangladesh early in the day.

In another lop-sided encounter, the women's team pulled off a dominating 43-12 win over Japan in its Group A opener.

The women's team will take on Thailand, on Monday, while its men counterpart will lock horns with South Korea.

The women's team never looked in any trouble, dominating the contest from start to end against the Japanese.

The team is seeking to complete a hat-trick of titles in the continental multi-sporting event.

The men's team, perennial gold winners, also lived up to the favourites tag as it it looked in complete control against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Indian women's hockey team thrashes Indonesia 8-0 in opener

Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur scored a hat-trick as the Indian women's hockey team thrashed lowly Indonesia 8-0 to begin its Asian Games campaign on a rousing note.

The Indian side, ranked highest in the competition at ninth, completely dominated the Pool B match against the home team who does not even feature in the FIH rankings chart.

Gurjit found the target in the 16th, 22nd and 57th minutes while Vandana Katariya (13th and 27th) struck twice. Udita (6th), Lalremsiami (24th) and Navneet Kaur (50th) were the other Indian scorers.

India had as many as 31 shots at Indonesian goal while the hosts did not have any in the whole 60 minutes of four equal quarters.

The Indians got as many as 19 penalty corners but could convert only three, all through Gurjit.

The Indians were on an attacking mode from the start and got a penalty corner in the fifth minute but it was wasted.

The next minute, India took the lead with Udita scoring a fine field goal as she lobbed the ball into the net from close range off a rebound from Namita Toppo's shot.

In the 13th minute, Vandana made it 2-0 for India with a superb goal after a slick interchange of passes.

Just a minute into the second quarter, India took 3-0 lead with Gurjit finding the target with her drag-flick off a penalty corner. Four minutes later, Gurjit's another penalty corner was stopped by the Indonesian goalkeeper.

But in the 22nd minute, Gurjit's lethal drag-flick could not be denied as it sounded the boards to make it 4-0 for India.

The goal spree continued with Lalremsiami making it 5-0 two minutes later and in the 27th minute, India were 6-0 up as Vandana scored her second goal of the match through a penalty corner variation.

The Indians led 6-0 at half time but they could score only two goals in the last two quarters.

In the 42nd minute, an Indian attempt from a penalty corner was saved by the Indonesian goalkeeper who stretched herself to stop two rebounds that resulted from the shot.

From another penalty corner in the 49th minute, the ball was cleared from the goal-line by the Indonesian goalkeeper.

The Indians scored in the 50th minute with Navneet tapping in the ball from close range. Three minutes from the final hooter, Gurjit completed his hat-trick with a powerful flighted shot from a penalty corner which gave the Indonesian goalkeeper no chance.

India, who won a bronze in the 2014 Asian Games, will take on Kazakhstan in their next match.

India blank Maldives 3-0 in badminton team event

The Indian badminton team, led by Kidambi Srikanth, made a resounding start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games, thrashing minnows Maldives 3-0 in the opening match of the team competition, in Jakarta, on Sunday.

World No 8. Srikanth brushed aside Maldives' Hussein Zayan Shaheed Zaki 21-4, 21-5 in 18 minutes to give India a 1-0 lead.

World No. 11 H S Prannoy then took 21 minutes to outclass Mohamed Sarim 21-8, 21-6 and make it 2-0 in India's favour.

B Sai Praneeth, who had clinched the 2017 Singapore Open, then ended the challenge of Mohamed Ajfan Rasheed in just 22 minutes with a 21-7, 21-8 demolition as India wrapped up the contest 3-0.
The Indian men's team will next face hosts Indonesia tomorrow in the quarterfinals.

Indonesia, who received a first-round bye, boasts of good players such as Jonathan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the singles, while their doubles line-up comprise World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and World No. 9 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

The women's team, led by Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu, will play formidable Japan in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the opening round.

Sharan-Thandi win tricky mixed doubles opener at Asian Games

Seventh seeds Karman Kaur Thandi and Divij Sharan of India defeated Filipino pairing of Marian Jane Capadocia and Alberto Jr Lim in a testing mixed doubles opener at the 18th Asian Games in Palembang.

Playing together for the first time, Thandi and Sharan eked out a 6-4, 6-4 win in a round of 32 match lasting 81 minutes at the Jakabaring Tennis Center.

Like Thandi and Sharan, the other Indians in the five categories too had a first round bye but they will be on court on Monday.

Captain and coach Zeeshan Ali was glad that Thandi and Sharan had a tough opening match.

"You don't want a 6-1, 6-1 result in the first match you are playing. It is good that they had a tough match. It will help them in the coming matches," Ali said.

The mixed doubles pairings were decided last minute following the sudden withdrawal of Leander Paes.

Rohan Bopanna and Ankita Raina are the other Indian pair in the mixed doubles.

Sharan also said it was a tricky opener.

"Karma had played with the guy on the junior circuit. We didn't know much about the girl. May be they did not have any pressure and played freely. They both had contrasting games. But the experience on the ATP circuit helped," said Sharan.

"We broke them at 4-4 in both the sets. It was a tough match and should give us momentum going forward."

Sharan and Boppana are the top seeds in the men's doubles. They will be playing their round of 32 match against the Indonesian combine of David Agung Susanto and Ignatius Anthony Susanto.

Also in action will be second seed in the men's singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan. The Indian should have a comfortable outing against Rifqi Fitriadi in the round of 32 match.

In the women's singles, sixth seed Raina will face Indonesian Beatrice Gumulya in the morning session tomorrow. Raina is taking part in all the women's events – singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Seventh seed Thandi will open her singles against Mongolian Jargal Altansarnai.

Rowing: Om Prakash-Sawarn Singh top Heat 2 in doubles sculls

Om Prakash and Sawarn Singh topped Heat 2 in men's doubles sculls while Dattu Baban Bhokanal was second in Heat 1 of singles sculls in the rowing competition.

Prakash and Sawarn, who won a singles sculls bronze in Incheon Games four years ago, clocked 7:10.26 to emerge the fastest ahead of the Japanese pairing of Yamao Keita and Kuribara Tomokazu, who recorded 7:12.70.

Bhokanal was not at his best in the single sculls and finished second with 8:09.21 behind Japan's Ryuta Arakawa, who recorded 7:56.08. The Indian, who qualified for Rio Olympics, has been consistently clocking around seven minutes in the last one month.

In the men's pair heats, Malkeet Singh and Gurinder Singh were third fastest in Heat 1 with 7:37.20, behind the Chinese pair of Li Xiaoxiong and Zhao Jingbin (7:30.14), and Uzbekistan's Alisher Turdiev and Sardor Tulkinkhujaev (7:33.48).

Sanjukta Dung and Harpreet Kaur disappointed in women's pair Heat 1, finishing fifth and last with 9:02.88.

The quartet of Bhopal Singh, Jagvir Singh, Tejash Hanamant Shinde and Praney Ganesh Naukarkar were fourth fastest with 7: 01.20 in the lightweight four heats. Teams from China, Indonesia and Uzbekistan were first, second and third fastest respectively.

Swimmers Sajan and Srihari finish 5th, 7th

Indian swimmers Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj finished a creditable fifth and seventh in the men's 200m butterfly and 100m backstroke events respectively.

Starting in lane 3, Prakash clocked 1:57.75 seconds to set a national record in the 200m butterfly final with Japan's Seto Daiya winning it comfortably with a timing of 1:54.53 seconds. Prakash had qualified as third fastest swimmer in the heats.

In the 100m backstroke event, Nataraj clocked 56.19 seconds. He had broken the national record in the qualification heats by clocking 55.86 seconds. However, his timing was the slowest among the eight finalists.

Earlier, Saurabh Sangvekar had crashed out of the 200m freestyle event, clocking 1:54.87 seconds.

Asian Games 2018