Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal in action against Pakistani player Mahoor Shahzad. (Source: PTI) Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal in action against Pakistani player Mahoor Shahzad. (Source: PTI)

India pulled yet another powerful performance on the opening day of Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia when they thrashed Pakistan 5-0 in one-sided matches on Thursday. Kidambi Srikanth’s match was the only difficult fixture as the side, which was spearheaded by Saina Nehwal and Srikanth, destroyed Pakistan on their opening day.

In the first match, Satwik Rankireddy and N Sikki Reddy dispatched Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti and Palwasha Bashir 21-10 21-13 in the mixed doubles match to put India 1-0 ahead. On playing a neighbouring country, Sikki said: “There are no disputes between us. We know them well. It was a friendly match, not a tough match. We tried to make it fun for the crowd. We did not take it easy, because anything could happen. We wanted to win comfortably.”

In the men’s singles, World No. 2 Srikanth was put to test by Murad Ali, who made the Indian work hard for each point. Srikanth even trailed in the second game, going into the mid-game interval trailing to Murad by a point. He, however, managed to get past his rival 21-16 22-20 in a nail-biting match, extending India’s lead to 2-0.

Indian shuttler S Kidambi in action against Pakistani player Murad Ali. (Source: PTI) Indian shuttler S Kidambi in action against Pakistani player Murad Ali. (Source: PTI)

His performance was then followed by that of London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, who mercilessly destroyed her opponent Mahoor Shahzad 21-7 21-11 as India took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match tie. Shahzad was no match to a relaxed Saina, who could be seen enjoying the match.

Saina had reportedly threatened to quit the tournament after her father Harvir Singh was not allowed to enter the Games Village and view the matches. She said after the match, “It is nice to get used to the court conditions. The Commonwealth Games is very prestigious for all of the countries, and for India, we are trying our level best and I just want to be focused and concentrate on all of my matches.”

“I expected that she would give me a tough fight. When you play someone who is lower-ranked, it is tough, because there is great expectation from you,” she added. “I hope that the whole team can play well. We are not thinking too much about the semis and finals.”

Next came men’s doubles category where Pranaav Chopra and Chirag Shetty combined to dispatch Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti and Murad Ali 21-9 21-15.

Last but not the least, Ashwini Ponnappa and Ruthvika Gadde took the court in women’s doubles against Mahoor Shahzad-Palwasha Bashir and won the match 21-6 21-10 to complete the 5-0 drubbing.

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