RARE silver medals in skiff sailing and greco roman wrestling were the high points for India while the country’s defending champion men’s teams in cricket and hockey moved into the finals with contrasting performances in pursuit of a golden finish at the Asian Games in Nagoya, on Thursday. India’s overall medal haul rose to 65, including 10 gold, 23 silver and 32 bronze which kept the country inside the top-10 of the standings. Keralam cousins Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis gave the Indian contingent an early reason to celebrate with their silver-wining effort in men’s skiff competition, finishing behind China and ahead of Hong Kong, China after winning one and finishing second in three of the nine races in the regatta. This was India’s first sailing medal of the ongoing edition. In the second half of the day, Nitesh Siwach (97kg) lost his final 0-4 to Japan’s Yuri Nakazato to settle for a silver, which is a rarity for India in greco roman events. In between, both the men’s and women’s squash teams ended with bronze medals after losing their semi-final clashes along with compound archer Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru. Anahat Singh, Joshana Chinappa, Tanvi Khanna, Shameena Riaz were the first to sign off after losing 1-2 to Hong Kong. Singles silver-winner Anahat was expected to steer India but she ended up squandering four match points to go down 2-3 (11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 11- 13, 10-12) against World No 25 Sin Yuk Chan in a thrilling opening match. World No 73 Tanvi then scripted a fine comeback with a 1-3 (4-11, 13-11, 11-9, 13-11) win overWorld No 40 KaYi Lee to keep India’s hopes alive in the threematch contest. However, veteran Joshana Chinappa, a former world top-10 player, suffered a straight-game loss to World No 39 Ho Tze Lok. Later, the defending champion men’s squad of Abhay Singh, Velavan Senthilkumar, Veer Chotrani and Suraj Chand were beaten 1-2 by Malaysia to sign off with a third-place finish this time.

 

Compound archer Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru also added bronze to the tally by making a comeback to win his men’s individual bronze medal clash with a commanding performance. Ganesh, who was a part of the gold-winning men’s team on Wednesday, defeated Vietnam’s Cong Duc Dang 149- 144. It was perfect shooting from the 20-year-old Indian in the play-off as he was on mark in 14 out of his 15 shots. Ganesh had lost 144-148 to Kim Jongho of South Korea in the semi-final after he could not replicate his stupendous quarter-final form. He trailed throughout in the last-four stage and eventually went down 29-30, 29-30, 29-28, 29- 30, 28-30. CRICKET DOMINATION The Shreyas Iyer-led Indian T20 side was short on both practice and game time for its semi-finals against Sri Lanka. But that hardly mattered when the action began as the Indians first posted a daunting 169-7 on the difficult track before dismissing the Lankans for a record low of 45 runs to march into the finals. The win was built around a very calculated 46-ball unbeaten 80 by Ishan Kishan and the predictable brilliance of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel, both of whom picked up two wickets a piece. Pakistan awaits India in the final after beating Bangladesh in the other semi-finals and the intense discussion can now be expected about the possibility, or the lack of it, of a handshake between players of the two sides. INDIA PIP PAKISTAN IN HOCKEY Defending champions India survived a massive scare in the semi-final against Pakistan but Abhishek struck with just 45 seconds remaining on the clock to snatch a dramatic 4-3 victory that sealed the side a place in the men’s hockey final. Harmanpreet converted two perfectly executed penalty corners in the 5th and 13th minutes, while Sukhjeet Singh scored a field goal in the 23rd minute. Abhishek scored the winning goal for India from a field play in the final minute of the game.