India extended its success at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya by claiming the women’s cricket gold medal and assuring podium finishes in men’s badminton and wushu on September 22.
The Indian women’s cricket team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, retained their title with a dominant 147-run victory over Sri Lanka in the final, posting a total of 216 for 3 – their highest-ever score at the Asian Games. Smriti Mandhana scored 79 runs off 45 balls, Shafali Verma contributed 48 off 29, and Richa Ghosh remained unbeaten with 49 runs from 22 deliveries. The bowlers then dismissed Sri Lanka for 69, securing India’s first gold medal of the competition and their second consecutive in women’s cricket.
Meanwhile, the men’s badminton team guaranteed at least a bronze medal by defeating host nation Japan 3-0 to reach the semifinals. Lakshya Sen overcame a challenging match against world number seven Kodai Naraoka, winning 11-21, 21-5, 21-19. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty added a 21-18, 24-22 victory over former world champions Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, and Ayush Shetty completed the win with a 21-10, 21-19 success over world number 16 Koki Watanabe. This result was a significant boost following the earlier quarterfinal exit of the women’s badminton team.
The women’s badminton team was eliminated after a 1-3 quarterfinal loss to Japan. PV Sindhu challenged world number three Akane Yamaguchi but lost 23-21, 18-21, 6-21. Unnati Hooda was defeated 16-21, 18-21 by Tomoka Miyazaki, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their doubles match 21-17, 21-16. Tanvi Sharma was then defeated 12-21, 10-21 by Nozomi Okuhara as Japan advanced to the semifinals.
In wushu, Roshibina Devi Naorem assured herself of a third consecutive Asian Games medal by reaching the semifinals of the women’s sanda 60kg event with a quarterfinal win over Macau’s Chu Man Sin at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall.
The men’s hockey team continued their strong form with a 16-1 victory over Sri Lanka in Pool A, highlighted by four goals from Jugraj Singh and hat-tricks from Abhishek Singh and Dilpreet Singh.
Indian boxers also performed well on the day. Sakshi Chaudhary caused an upset by defeating Paris Olympic bronze medallist Aira Villegas in the women’s 51kg category, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals. Jadumani Singh moved on to the last 16 in the men’s 55kg division with a 5-0 win over Nepal’s Chandra Bahadur Thapa.
India’s women’s table tennis team reached the quarterfinals after a close 3-2 win against Thailand, whereas the men’s team were eliminated in the round of 16 following a 0-3 defeat to South Korea. They had previously lost to Iran in the group stage.
Gymnast Pranati Nayak qualified for the women’s individual vault final after finishing seventh in the qualification round with a combined score of 12.916. The final is scheduled for September 24.