Commonwealth Games:Shuttlers advance, Joshna in QFs

Gold Coast: India blanked Scotland 5-0 to enter the quarter-finals of the badminton mixed team event, producing their third successive clean sweep at the Commonwealth Games here on Friday.

India topped Group A as Saina Nehwal gave India a 1-0 lead, beating Julie Macpherson 21-14, 21-12 before 2 Kidambi Srikanth beat Kieran Merrilees 21-18, 21-2.

N. Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa continued the charge in women’s doubles, crushing Kirsty Gilmour and Eleanor O’Donnell 21-8, 21-12. Satwiksairaj Rank-ireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Patrick Machu-gh and Adam Hall 21-16, 21-19 in men’s doubles.

There were several other good results too, prominent being the women’s hockey team recovering from the opening day loss to Wales, with a 4-1 thrashing of Malaysia. Gurjit Kaur (two), skipper Rani Rampal and Lalremsiami were the goal scorers. 

In the boxing ring, CWG debutants Amit Panghal (49kg) and Naman Tanwar (91kg) recorded unanimous victories to enter the last eight stage.

Tanwar defeated Tanza-nia’s Haruna Mhando, while Amit got the better of Ghana’s Tetteh Sulem-anu. Joshna Chinnappa entered the squash quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over Australia’s Tamika Saxb, while Dipika Pallikal lost to England’s Alison Waters 0-3.

In gymnastics, Aruna Reddy failed to qualify for the final round even as Pranati Nayak made the cut in artistic gymnastics (vault)