Gold Coast: The star-studded Indian badminton team continued their exceptional performance on the second day of the 2018 Commonwealth Games as well as they crushed Scotland 5-0 to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Mixed Team event here at the Carrara Stadium here on Friday.
London Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal gave her country a perfect start by clinching a comfortable 21-14, 21-12 win over Julie Macpherson in a one-sided women’s singles clash that lasted 35 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth, who has been in menacing form from a quite a long time now, did justice to his world number two ranking as he empowered India to a 2-0 lead by sweeping aside Kieran Merrilees 21-18, 21-2 in the men’s singles event that lasted more than a half an hour.
The Indian pairs of N. Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty then emerged winners in their respective doubles to help India clinch victory.
In the women’s doubles event, Reddy and Ponnappa eased past the Scotland duo of Kirsty Gilmour and Eleanor O’Donnell 21-8, 21-12 inside 30 minutes.
Subsequently, Rankireddy and Chandrashekhar Shetty outsmarted Scottish team of Patrick MacHugh and Adam Hall 21-16, 21-19 in the men’s doubles clash to give India 4-0 lead.
In the last match of the day two, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy registered a 21-17, 21-15 win over Martin Campbell and Julie Macpherson to ensure India complete a clean sweep over Scotland as well.
Earlier, the Indian badminton team also defeated Sri Lanka and Pakistan with a margin of 5-0 on the opening day of the prestigious CWG 2018 here on Thursday.
In cycling, Manjeet Singh failed to qualify forward in men’s 4000m individual pursuit after clocking 4:39.744 minutes to finish at 24th spot out of 27 competitors.
India are currently placed third in the Games after England and Australia, having clinched four medals in total including two gold.
ANI