CWG 2014: India crush Ghana 5-0 in mixed team badminton

The Indian badminton team launched its Commonwealth Games campaign with a dominating 5-0 win over minnows Ghana in a Group B match of the mixed team event at the 20th edition of the multi-sport event on Thursday. India hardly broke any sweat as Parupalli Kashyap started the proceeding, spanking Daniel Sam 21-6 21-16 in a 27-minute men’s singles match to put his team in the driver’s seat right from the start. [caption id=“attachment_1632687” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  P Kashyap won his singles match in the mixed team first group match. PTI[/caption] World Championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu then taught Stella Amasah a lesson or two in badminton with a 21-7 21-5 victory in the women’s singles competition to give India a 2-0 lead. Men’s doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra thrashed Emmanuel Donkor and Abraham Ayittey 21-7 21-11 in just 22 minutes to make it 3-0 in India’s favour. Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa then another 17 minutes to brush aside Evelyn Botwe and Diana Archer as India continued their rampaging run. Finally, P C Thulasi and Kidambi Srikanth – both singles players – paired up and trounced another makeshift combination of Sam and Amasah 21-5 21-9 in a mixed doubles match to put an end to Ghana’s misery at the Emirates Arena. Click here for India’s full Commonwealth Games schedule. PTI