Hangzhou : The Indian contingent on Wednesday registered its best-ever medal haul at the Asian Games by going past the previous edition’s tally of 70 here.

India’s previous-best medal haul had come at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, when the country’s athletes returned with 70 medals, including 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze.

Indian race walkers Manju Rani and Ram Baboo fetched a bronze medal in the 35km mixed race walk event early on Wednesday to help India match the 2018 Jakarta Games’ performance.

Compound archers Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam then grabbed India’s 71st medal when they won the mixed team gold medal.

“It is with great pleasure that I would like to state that India has forged its impression with the best ever medal haul in the Asian Games by crossing the 70 mark in medals tally and there are more to come,” India’s chef de mission Bhupender Singh Bajwa said.

India has sent its largest-ever contingent with an aim to cross the 100-medal mark at the continental showpiece.

‘Aab ki Baar, Sau Paar’ (which translates to crossing 100 medals this time) has been India’s catch line for the Hangzhou Games.

India currently have 16 gold, 26 silver and 29 bronze medals with over four days of competition still left.

Hangzhou : A supremely confident Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam dropped just one point to defeat their South Korean opponents by one-point and clinch their second gold medal in archery at the Asian Games here on Wednesday.

With this, Indian archers are set to win at least four medals from the ongoing Games, which will better their previous best show at Incheon in 2014 when they bagged a men’s team compound gold, one silver and a bronze.

In a gold medal clash between the top-two seeds, the No. 1 Indian pair was near perfect and pipped So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon 159-158.

The Indian duo entered the final with a 159-154 win over Kazakhstan. They had just one ‘9’ and the rest were all ’10s’ in the semifinals against the Kazakh pair of Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun.

Earlier in the day, the Indians held their nerve to beat Malaysia 158-155 and advance into the semifinals.

Kazakhstan defeated Thailand 154-152.

Earlier, the Indian pair had a strong start to take a 40-39 lead but in the second-end both of them dropped two points as the Malaysian pair of Mohd Juwaidi Bin Mazuki and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh bounced back to draw level.

Reigning senior world champion Deotale, who was taking the first shot for India, missed the 10-ring by millimetres in the second end to put pressure on her senior teammate Jyothi.

The multiple World Cup gold medallist Jyothi also faltered to concede the second end to their rivals by one-point (38-39).

But the duo showed grit to come up with all 10s while shooting first in the third end as a strong Mohd Juwaidi dropped his first-point of the day that helped India regain the lead (118-117).

In the deciding fourth end, the Malaysian shot first and put pressure with back-to-back 10s but the Indian duo held their composure and responded in style with as many 10s.

It was Jyothi’s arrow that was bang on target, proving to be decisive as in the next shot the 32-year-old Fatin Nurfatehah hit the red-ring for an 8 to concede the match to the Indians.

The Indian archers had on Tuesday confirmed three medals to match their best-ever feat of Incheon 2014 at the continental showpiece.

Hangzhou: Chinese national team athlete Wu Yanni has tendered an unconditional apology to India’s Jyothi Yarraji over the false start drama that unfolded during Sunday’s women’s 100 hurdles final at the Asian Games.

“I am very sorry that my result was disqualified due to a false start, disappointing everyone’s expectations. I deeply apologize to all my friends who have supported me and to the competitors in tonight’s race,” Wu wrote on her official account on Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like social media platform.

“I respect the referee’s final decision, respect the rules and the competition, and congratulate my teammates and opponents who finished the race.”

Drama unfolded in the last event of the day at the ‘Big Lotus’ stadium when the women’s 100m hurdles was stopped after the gun was fired. Replays clearly showed that Chinese runner Wu Yanni was responsible for the false start as she got off the blocks even before the gunshot was taken.

The judges reviewed the start of the race at the on-field screen and then disqualified Yanni. But to the surprise of the Indian camp, Yarraji was also told that she would be out due to false start.

Yarraji stood her ground for a while and protested and the race was held up for a few minutes.

In sprint races, under 100 millisecond rule, any athlete who reacts within 100 milliseconds (0.100 second) of the gun going off is considered to have false started.

Later, the judges allowed both of them to compete and Yanni finished second behind her Chinese compatriot Lin Yuwei (12.74) while Yarraji (13.04) was third.

HANGZHOU: The Indian tennis duo Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale bagged the gold medal in the tennis mixed doubles at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.  

The Rohan-Rutuja duo struggled in the initial set of the match and lost the first set against Chinese Taipei’s En-shuo Liang and Tsung-hao Huang by 6-2. The Indian pair made a stellar comeback and later dominated the game to beat their opponents in straight two sets by 3-6, and 4-10. The final tennis match went on for almost over one hour but India made no mistake to clinch the gold medal.

In the semi-final match of the mixed doubles final event, 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale defeated Chinese Taipei’s Yu-hsiou Hsu and Hao-Ching Chang to reach the final. The Indian duo defeated Chinese Taipei by 6-1, 3-6, 10-4 and assured a medal for India at the Asian Games 2023 on Friday.

The Bopanna-Bhosale duo won the first set 6-1 against Chinese Taipei’s Yu-hsiou Hsu and Hao-ching Chang. However, in the semi-final match, the Indian pair lost control in the second set but they prevailed in the tiebreaker 10-4 to storm into the final match assuring themselves a medal.

The tennis events started on September 24 and concluded on Saturday with Bopanna-Bhosale winning the gold in the mixed doubles final.

The Indian contingent stands at fourth place in the 19th Asian Games medals table with a total of 34 medals. Which includes nine gold, 13 silver, and 13 bronze medals.

HANGZHOU: Indian roller skaters clinched two bronze medals in men’s and women’s 3000m team relay events to match their best-ever performance at the Asian Games here on Monday.

The women’s team of Sanjana Bathula, Karthika Jagadeeswaran, Heeral Sadhu and Aarathy Kasturi Raj opened India’s account on the ninth day of competitions, finishing with a timing of 4:34.861s.

Aryanpal Singh Ghuman, Anandkumar Velkumar, Siddhant Kamble and Vikram Ingale then sealed a second bronze with a timing of 4:10.128 in the men’s team relay.

Chinese Taipei (4:05.692) and South Korea (4:05.702) took the top two spots.

Indian roller skaters had won two bronze medals at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games in men’s free skating and pairs skating events.

HANGZHOU: Indian rowers staged twin comebacks to end the day with two bronze and take their overall tally to five medals in the watersport at the Asian Games here on Monday.

The day began with the quartet of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish Goliyan narrowly missing a silver in men’s fours event.

In the men’s four event too, after lying fourth in the final 500metre of the 2000m race, the quartet showed superb coordination to finish third with 6:10.81s, and was pipped by China (6:10.04) by a fraction of seconds.

Uzbekistan took the top spot in the podium with a timing of 6:04.96.

Indian rower Balraj Panwar however missed out on a maiden Asian Games podium, finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls.

The 24-year-old from Karnal, who was among the top-three at the 1500-mark, faltered in the final 500m to slip to fourth place with a timing of 7:08.79s.

He finished less than nine seconds behind Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chiu who took the bronze medal (7:00.55).

China’s Liang Zang secured the gold with 6:57.06, while Japan’s Ryuta Arakawa (6:59.79) and Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chiu finished with silver and bronze respectively.

The Indian oarswomen disappointed the most, finishing bottom in the five-team field of the women’s eight with a timing of 7:05.71s, way behind China who took the gold medal clocking 6:33.61.

The Indian team of Sonali Swain, Ritu Kaudi, Priya Devi Thangjam, Varsha Kattathara, Aswathi Padinjarayil, Mrunmayee Salgaonkar, Tendenthoi Devi Haobijam, Rukmani and Geetanjali Gurugubelli hardly posed any challenge to their opponents.

Even the fourth-placed Thailand finished more than 15 seconds ahead of the Indians.

Indian rowers have now won two silver and three bronze medals.

India had bagged two silver and a bronze medal on Sunday.

COLOMBO:  It was quite an unusual sight — for the first time in the tournament, the R Premadasa Stadium was packed for the Asia Cup final on Sunday between co-hosts Sri Lanka and India. As the drama started unfolding in the middle, there was another unusual sight — the scoreboard. The wicket section was rotating faster than the runs and by the time the heavens opened up again later in the evening, the match was already over; in less than three hours. The 50-over match turned into a 50-run affair after Mohammed Siraj’s inspired spell skittled Sri Lanka out to give India a modest 51-run target. Almost as if Rohit Sharma & Co did not want to go into another reserve day after a delayed start. 

In a span of 24 balls, Siraj blew away the Sri Lankan batting. The pacer started with a maiden over and followed it up with four wickets off his next six balls reducing Sri Lanka to 12/5. He ran through the top-order and claimed his first ODI fifer (6/21) in the fifth over as the co-hosts were bundled out in 15.2 overs. India openers did the rest, chasing down the target in just 6.1 overs. 

India’s trophy drought ended
After five years, the Men in Blue won their first multi-team tournament, putting an end to the long wait. It should give them a morale boost ahead of all-important World Cup

Colombo: India defeated Sri Lanka by 41 runs in a super four match to secure their place in the final of the Asia Cup here on Tuesday.

Asked to bowl first, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage (5/40) took a fifer as Sri Lanka bowled India out for 213.

The spin duo of Wellalage and Charith Asalanka (4/18) wreaked havoc in the middle overs to bundle out India in 49.1 overs after skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat.

Rohit (53) top-scored for India.

There was a brief rain interruption with just three overs remaining in India’s innings.

Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals as Kuldeep Yadav returned with impressive figures of 4 for 43, while Jasprit Bumrah (2/30) picked up early wickets to hand India the win.

Sri Lanka were all out for 172 in 41.3 overs.

For Sri Lanka, Wellalage (42 not out) top-scored with the bat after a brilliant bowling display.

Brief scores:

India: 213 all out in 49.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 53; Dunith Wellalage 5/40, Charith Asalanka 4/18).

Sri Lanka: 172 all out in 41.3 overs (Dunith Wellalage 42 not out; Kuldeep Yadav 4/43).

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COLOMBO: Had it not been for the last-minute injury to Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul would not have found a place in the playing XI against Pakistan in their Super Four match here at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. The team sheet shared by India captain Rohit Sharma at the toss at least suggested so. The No. 4 position, where Rahul eventually came out to bat, was marked for Iyer while the former was at No. 13 on the team sheet with Suryakumar Yadav being the 12th man.

As if that uncertainty was not enough, inclement weather further prohibited Rahul from expressing himself despite taking the field after a gap of four months. When he was unbeaten on 17, skies opened up forcing match officials to suspend the game on Sunday. India was 147/2 after 24.1 overs with Virat Kohli also not out on 8.

Once Rahul and Virat took the field, they showed no mercy as the duo sent Pakistan bowlers on a leather hunt. While openers Rohit (56) and Shubman Gill (58) had added 121 for the first wicket, Rahul and Virat remained unconquered. They stitched together a 233-run partnership for the third wicket. Kohli was unbeaten on 122 off 94 while Rahul was not out on 111 off 106 as India posted 356/2. Virat also became the quickest to reach 13,000 runs in ODIs. The century was also his 47th in the ODIs, only two behind the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

Injury to Haris Rauf didn’t help Pakistan’s cause either as the pacer, who bowled five overs on Sunday, didn’t take the field on Monday. “He was subsequently taken for a precautionary MRI, which revealed no tear. He is under the observation of the team’s medical panel,” a statement from the Pakistan Cricket Board read. Babar Azam and Co suffered another injury scare when pacer Naseem Shah left the field holding his wrist. He could not complete the penultimate over of the Indian innings and Iftikhar Ahmed had to bowl the remaining four deliveries. The target proved too big for Pakistan to chase down as they managed 128/8 in 32 overs. Rauf and Naseem didn’t come out to bat as India won by a huge margin of 228 runs. Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav claimed a five-for (5/25) while Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur claimed a wicket each.

Earlier, returning after a long injury lay-off and a subsequent thigh surgery, 31-year-old Rahul did find a place in the 17-member squad for the Asia Cup but was left back at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bengaluru even as the team flew for Sri Lanka for the continental tournament. The reason as stated by the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, was a fresh niggle. After missing two matches, the wicketkeeper-batter joined the squad in Colombo. He was also named in the Indian squad of 15 for the 2023 ODI World Cup.

Given his long absence from the field, questions were raised on his return to the team right before the World Cup. This is despite the fact that his performance in the 50-over format has been good in the recent past before injury sidelined him. This year he didn’t exactly dazzle with the willow but scored two half-centuries in the previous six ODIs before the match against Pakistan to stay in the hunt for a place in the World Cup squad.

But something was missing and even Rahul knew it. For a batter, who had made his ODI debut with a century, not reaching the three-figure mark for more than two years would have been frustrating. He last hit a century on March 26, 2021, when he made 108 against England in Pune. Since then he had played 17 ODIs scoring four half-centuries but the ton was looking elusive before it came against the arch-rivals.

Though Rahul has played maximum matches as an opener it’s No. 4 or No. 5 where he has scored the most runs with an impressive batting average so far. At No. 4, where he batted on Monday, his numbers are the most impressive. In 10 matches he batted in that position, he has scored 352 runs including two centuries at an average of 58.66. He is also equally good at No 5 where he has scored 742 runs from 18 matches including a century with an average of 53.

The recent show by the Karnataka batter might relieve Indian team management of a few worries, especially the injury concerns that have given it sleepless nights over the past few months. With Ishan Kishan looking in good touch and Iyer apparently having only back spasm, Rahul’s form may also lead to a healthy competition among batters giving the management plenty of options in the middle order.