Mixed team shuttlers in knockouts

Birmingham, July 30

The Indian badminton players dished out another splendid show to outclass Sri Lanka 5-0 in their second Group A match of the mixed team competition at the Commonwealth Games here today.

At Arena Birmingham, India were by far the better team as they completely dominated the proceedings. A day after blanking Pakistan 5-0, India notched up another convincing win to go top of the group and qualify for the quarterfinals with one tie still remaining in the league stage.

India made a strategic decision to split the mixed and men’s doubles pairing as Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were back together for the opening match.

The former world No. 19 pair looked initially rusty before getting past Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa 21-14 21-9 to put India 1-0 ahead.

In the men’s singles, Lakshya Sen, who was playing his first match after recovering from a shoulder injury, prevailed 21-18 21-5 over veteran Niluka Karunaratne. Karunaratne has competed at three Olympics, in 2012, 2016 and 2021. Aakarshi Kashyap then went past Vidara Suhasni Vidanage 21-3 21-9 in the women’s singles to hand India an unassailable 3-0 lead. In the men’s doubles, B Sumeeth Reddy combined with Chirag Shetty to beat Dumindu Abeywickrama and Dias 21-10 21-13 to make it 4-0. In the final match, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly overcame Hendahewa and Vidanage to win 21-18 21-6 in the women’s doubles.