Indian badminton stars came up with another clinical performance to blank Scotland 5-0 and top Group A in the Commonwealth Games mixed team event on Friday.
Having hammered neighbours Sri Lanka and Pakistan by an identical margin, India were expecting a better fight from the Scottish contingent and resorted to fielding their regular doubles combinations while continuing to rest world championship silver medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy in the singles category.
Read more: Follow all the events of day two on our live blog
Scotland also decided to field their top singles star Kristy Gilmour in the women’s doubles and pushed Julie Macpherson to face the former world number one Saina Nehwal in the women’s singles.
Nehwal, who had bulldozed opponents in the earlier rounds, needed sometime to figure out her opponent before giving India strong start with a 21-14, 21-12 win.
World number 2 Kidambi Srikanth then needed just 31 minutes to beat Kieran Merrilees 21-18, 21-2.
Gilmour couldn’t do much in the women’s doubles as she and partner Eleanor O’Donnell went down 21-8, 21-12 against N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa. The men’s doubles combination of Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and mixed doubles pairing of Reddy/Pranaav Chopra then rounded off the tally with straight game wins.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!