India crush minnows Ghana 5-0 in badminton mixed team event at Glasgow CWG

Paupalli Kashyap wins men’s singles badminton match to give India the first lead at Glasgow Commonweatlh Games 2014

The Indian badminton team started off their campaign on an impressive note with a thumping 5-0 win over Ghana in a Group B match in the mixed team event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Parupalli Kashyap, who won a bronze medal in 2010 Commonwealth Games for India, started off the proceedings by crushing Daniel Sam 21-6, 21-16 in a 27-minute men’s singles match to put the Indian team on the top.

Following that display of dominance, World Championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu overpowered Stella Amasah with a massive 21-7, 21-5 victory in the women’s singles match to provide India a 2-0 lead.

The men’s doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra then overwhelmed Emannuel Donkor and Abraham Ayittey 21-7, 21 -11 in a seemingly very short period of 22 minutes to see India extend their lead to 3-0.

With India relishing their winning spree, it just took another 17 minutes for the Commonwealth games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ahwinin Ponnappa to win against Evelyn Botwe and Diana Archer.

To round it off, the makeshift combination of singles players – the duo of P C Thulasi and Kidambi Srikanth – routed the mixed doubles of Sam and Amasah 21-5, 21-9 to complete an emphatic show by India on the first day of the Commonwealth Games.