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Asian Games: Solid day two for India following wins in women's cricket, men's football and rowing

Indian Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls duo of Arjun Lal Jat (bow) and Arvind Singh (stroke) made it to the Final A in rowing

The Indian contingent had a solid second day at the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, with the Indian women's cricket team reaching the semifinals, men's and women's football teams producing contrasting results and some solid performances in sailing and rowing.

Smriti Mandhana-led Team India reached the semifinals of the Asian Games after their quarterfinal match against Malaysia was called off due to rain here at Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field on Thursday.

India made it through to the semis owing to higher seeding after the game was washed out.

After rain showed no signs of relenting and play did not look likely for the next hour the match was called off.

Malaysia put India to bat after winning the toss under the overcast conditions.

Top knocks by Shafali Verma (67 in 39 balls with four boundaries and five sixes), Smriti (27 in 16 balls, with five fours) powered India to 173/2 in 15 overs against Malaysia. Malaysia was 1/0 in 0.2 overs before rain interrupted the action and the match was called off.

Coming to rowing, the Indian Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls duo of Arjun Lal Jat (bow) and Arvind Singh (stroke) made it to the Final A with the timing of 6:55.78, topping the Repechage 1 in the 19th Asian Games on Thursday.

Rowing events at the Asian Games 2023 will be held from September 20 to 25 at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre in Hangzhou.

Arvind and Arjun Lal clocked at 6.55.78 and displayed their determination by securing the first position in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls event in Rowing.

The duo jumped into an early lead and never let go of it until the finish. Japan finished second with the timing of 7:05.91 while the Philippines secured the third position by clocking 7:10.97.

In Lightweight Men's Double Sculls, Arjun and Arvind topped the repechage race and entered the Final A, which will be played on Sunday.

Meanwhile, India got another FA to its name as Satnam Singh (bow) and Parminder Singh topped the leaderboard.

The Indian duo of Satnam and Parminder clocked 6.48.06 to finish first to qualify for the final in Double Skulls.

In the sport of sailing, India managed to put up some decent performances at the end of the first day of competition.

In the men's windsurfing IQFOIL event, Jerome Kumar Savarimuthu finished the day at the seventh spot. He earned 27 points in four races. He finished the first race at eighth position with eight points, fifth spot with five points in race two, sixth position with six points in race three and eighth with eight points in race four. ‘

In the Men's Skiff event, the pair of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar finished fifth with a total of 15 points in three races. They finished eighth with eight points in race one, third spot with three points in race two and fourth spot with four points in race three.

In the women's skiff, the pair of Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma finished the first day in third position with 11 points in three races. In the first race, they finished at sixth spot with six points, in the second they finished second with two race points and in the race three, they finished third with three race points.

The mixed dinghy pair of Sudhanshu Shekhar and Preeti Kongara finished the first day at fourth position with eight points in two races. In both races, they finished at the fourth spot with four race points.

In the boy's dinghy competition, Adhvait Menon concluded the first day at the sixth spot, with 11 points in two races. In the first race, he finished fifth with five race points, followed by a sixth-place finish with six race points.

In the girls' dinghy competition, Neha Thakur concluded the day at third position with six points from two races. In both races, he finished at third spot with three race points.

The men's kite event saw Chithresh Tatha finish at the seventh spot with 27 points in four races. In the first race, he finished at sixth spot with six race points, followed by a seventh-place finish with seven race points in the next three races.

In the women's dinghy event, Nethra Kumanan finished at the third position on day one, with six points in two races. In the first race, she finished at second with two race points and at fourth spot in the second race with four race points.

Part of the mixed multihull event, Indar Doiphode and Ramya Saravanan finished the first day with eight points in two races. In the first race, they earned the third-place finish with three race points, then a second-place finish with two race points with two race points and at third position with three race points.

Eabad Ali finished the day in the men's windsurfer event with 17 points out of 3 races. He had a third-place finish in race one with three race points and a seventh-place finish in the next two races with seven race points each.

In the men's dinghy ILCA7 event, Vishnu Saravanan gained six points in two races. In the first race, he finished first with one point and then fifth in the next race with five race points. He finished the day at the second spot overall.

Finally, in the women's windsurfer, Ishwariya Ganesan got 11 points in three races. She finished in third spot in her first two races with three race points each. But she could not finish her last race, ending the day at third position overall.

The sailing events will conclude on September 27. Though some disciplines have already started offering action to the fans, the Asian Games will officially start on September 23 and end on October 8.

Lastly, coming to football, the Indian men’s football team beat Bangladesh 1-0 in its second Group A match.

Sunil Chhetri (85’) scored the winning goal from the penalty spot.

With the win, India registered their first victory in the ongoing Hangzhou Games 2023. India had lost their opening match against the host China 1-5 on Tuesday.

The victory put India in the third spot in Group A with three points from two matches. The top two teams along with four of the six best-placed third-place teams will qualify for the round of 16.

In the women's football, the Indian team began its campaign with a 1-2 loss to Chinese Taipei on Thursday in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.

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Anju Tamang (47') began the scoring for India, but goals from Li-Chin Lai (69') and Yu-Hsuan Su (84') sealed all three points and propelled Chinese Taipei to the top of Group B.

The Indian women's football team will now play Thailand on Sunday.

The five group winners will reach the women’s football quarter-finals. The three best runners-up from Groups A, B, D and E will get the remaining quarters spots.