Commonwealth Games, India vs Pakistan Badminton Highlights: PV Sindhu & Co. rout Pak 5-0

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly put an end to Pakistan’s misery on the court with a lopsided 21-4, 21-5 win in the women’s doubles and final tie of the Group 1 opening encounter against Mahoor Shahzad/Ghazala Siddique.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s doubles tie, second game score: 11-3  This is absurd! Pak pair is meeting the same fate as they did in the first game as Gayatri and Treesa ran to an 8-point lead. The giant gap hides the enthralling 47-point rally at the beginning of the set, which also went into India’s favour. Sadly, Ghazala and Mahoor have been far from consistent in this tie and before.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s doubles tie, first game score: 21-4 The game was a complete mismatch as the young Indian pair ran away with the first game in no time. Gayatri and Treesa made a mockery of their opponents, who were already made to work hard in the early mixed and singles tie. The gulf in quality and squad strength is on display from both sides.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s doubles tie, first game score: 3-1 After Treesa’s lose shot gave away the opening point to Ghazala/Mahoor, the Indian pair quickly takes three points on the trot for an early lead in the game.

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Next up in the final and inconsequential tie of the day, women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will take on Mahoor Shahzad/Ghazala Siddique

CWG 2022 Badminton Live

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty beats Murad Ali/Muhammad Bhatti 21-12, 21-9 to give India 4-0 lead in the five-match tie

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, second game score: 17-8 As evident in the last point, Chirag’s smashes have been too much to take for the Pakistani pair as Indian duo surges towards win.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, second game score: 16-6 Satwik-Chirag are in a hurry to finish off the game as they quickly took a 10-3 lead in the second game after a 29-shot rally at the beginning. Ali/Bhatti sporadically picked the points which allowed the Indian pair to stretch to a huge 10-point lead.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, first game score: 21-12 A barrage of smash battle saw Chirag take the point and the game with a drop shot. Ali/Bhatti certainly didn’t see that coming as they concede the first game without a fight.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, first game score: 16-10 Ali/Bhatti are surely not learning from their mistakes as they make two service errors to quickly lose initiatives after picking points. A lesson hard learnt, you don’t give freebies to a world-class doubles pair like Satwik-Chirag.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, first game score: 11-6 Satwik-Chirag are getting stronger in the game with every points they pick as the duo stretches their lead to five points at the halfway stage of the game. Must say Ali/Bhatti lost an initiative as Ali served loose for Chirag to pounce on and get that momentum going.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s doubles tie, first game score: 8-4 Satwik-Chirag takes an early four-point lead in the first game as Murad/Bhatti tried to put up a fight early on.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
India’s No.1 men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty is up next in the dead rubber of a fourth tie against Pakistan’s Murad Ali/Muhammad Bhatti (World No. 737).

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Sindhu seals it! She beats Mahoor Shahzad 21-7, 21-6 to give India an unassailable lead in the best-of-five tie of the mixed team event in Group 1.

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Women’s singles tie, second game score: 17-6 Mahoor Shahzad is just running around the court for the sake of it now as she struggles to match the brute force and array of shots that PV Sindhu has produced.

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Women’s singles tie, second game score: 14-5 Sindhu wins the point with a delightful cross-court backhand as Mahoor seems clueless at this stage.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s singles tie, second game score: 11-4 Sindhu ensures that the beginning of the game was just an anomaly as she wins five points on the trot to stretch to a seven-point lead at the halfway stage of the second game. Scores were exactly the same at this stage in the first game.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s singles tie, second game score: 3-2 Some early fight from Mahoor Shahzad in the opening minutes of the second game as she rushed to a two-point lead. Sindhu, however, gained back control by winning three points on the trot.

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Women’s singles tie, first game score: 15-5 Sindhu is running away with the game as the last point came from a simple kill shot. The gulf in quality of both the opponents is palpable.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s singles tie, first game score: 11-4 No stopping Sindhu today who now stretches her lead to seven points at the halfway stage of the opening game of the third tie. Mahoor will have to dig deep if she really wants to fight for this game.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s singles tie, first game score: 7-2 PV Sindhu is not attempting anything extraordinary but sending her Pakistani rival back and forth to wrap up those points. The Indian is surely getting under Mahoor’s skin as the match seems set to meet the fate of the last two ties.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Women’s singles tie, first game score: 5-1 PV Sindhu runs to an early lead of four points as she hits some powerful body smashes to unsettle Mahoor.

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Following the comfortable wins for India in the first two ties, next up is PV Sindhu’s turn to wrap up the win as she takes on World No. 175 Mahoor Shahzad. For the unversed, Sindhu is World No. 7.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s singles tie, second game score: 21-12 There’s no fightback as Kidambi Srikanth takes the next six points on the trot to win the game and the match 21-7, 21-12. Must say, Kidambi had to break no sweat during the course of the match as Murad could hardly put pressure on the Indian, who warmed up well for the knockout stages with the win today.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s singles tie, second game score: 15-9 Murad Ali is showing a late fight as he cuts down the gap by a point. In a moment to take from the match, the Pak shuttler placed a beautiful cross-court shot after setting up the point. Is there a late comeback in order from Murad?

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s singles tie, second game score: 11-4 With all due respect to Murad, this merely seems a practice game for Kidambi, who is hitting one winner after another to build a seven-point lead halfway into the second game. The match expectedly going in India’s favour.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s singles tie, first game score: 21-7 Murad Ali saves first of the game point by winning a 20-shot rally but Kidambi kills it off in the next point almost instantly as he takes 1-0 lead in the tie.

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Men’s singles tie, first game score: 19-6 This seems way too easy for Kidambi, who is dictating the terms in the rally and kills the points whenever he feels like it. A great learning experience for the 27-year-old Pakistani.

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Men’s singles tie, first game score: 13-4 Murad finally picks a point after conceding 10 points on the trot. Worth celebrating for the Pakistani, who faces an in-form Indian.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Men’s singles tie, first game score: 11-3 This seems easy for Kidambi, who toys with Murad Ali by testing his mights with cross-court shots every now and then. This could mentally take a toll on Murad, who hasn’t won any of the last eight points after levelling the score 3-3 early on.

CWG Badminton Live:
The second tie in the order is the men’s singles tie between Kidambi Srikanth and Murad Ali. Goes without saying that India’s World No. 11 is a massive favourite against his World No. 768 Pakistani opponent.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Second Game score: 21-11 It’s all over! Indian pair Ashwini Ponnappa/B Sumeeth Reddy takes the second game with a string of points. The final score reads 21-9, 21-11 as the Indian duo gave no inch to the Pak pair of  Muhammad Bhatti/Ghazala Siddique. Certainly, a mismatch of an opponent forAshwini/Sumeeth, who gave India 1-0 lead in the best-of-five tie. Up next will be the first singles match of the tie.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Second Game score: 15-9 Some action for the spectators as India pick point after an amazing 32-shot rally. The rally would have carried on for longer if Siddique’s cross-court return didn’t go wide

CWG 2022 Badminton Live
Second Game score: 13-9 It’s evident that Ashwini/Sumeeth has identified Ghazala as the weak link among the Pak duo as they direct smashes towards her. Ghazala is far from comfortable dealing with them. Bhatti, on the other hand, has far more shots in his armour and has been the main reason behind the small gap in the second game.

CWG 2022 Badminton Live

Second Game score: 8-6 The Pakistani pair of Bhatti/Siddique have come back stronger in the second game as they begin it with a 28-shot rally. Two erratic smashes by Sumeeth did them some favour too as the neighbours keep themselves in the game. The cushion of two points still remains with India

CWG 2022 Badminton Live

21-9! Indian pair takes the opening set with no discomfort as Sumeeth wins the game-winning point with a smash that left Siddique no chance to react.

INDIA 1-0 GHANA!

GOAL! ???????? INDIA LEAD! Gurjit Kaur is clinical from the penalty corner and India are ahead in just the third minute

CWG 2022 Badminton Live

Defending mixed team event champions India get their defence underway against Pakistan at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.