Nagoya, Sep 22 (IANS) The women's cricket team bagged the country's first gold in the 2026 edition; the men's badminton team assured itself a medal while gymnast Pranati Nayak stormed into the vault final, raising hopes of a medal as India had a successful day at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan on Tuesday.

Adding to the country's success, the men's hockey team continued its dominant start by thrashing Sri Lanka 16-1 in a Pool A match at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Kakamigahara.

However, there was some disappointment as the women's badminton team lost to Japan in the quarterfinals, ending their campaign on a low note, while the team of Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Rakesh Mane narrowly missed a medal, finishing fourth in the 10m Air rifle mixed team event.

The gold medal in women's cricket pushed India to eighth place in the medals table with one gold, four silver and two bronze for a total of seven medals. China reaped rich rewards in swimming, cycling, and volleyball as it continued to lead the medals tally with 53 medals, including 32 gold. Hosts Japan are a distant second with 46 medals, including 11 gold.

The day belonged to the Indian women's cricket team, which won a second successive gold medal in as many Asian Games editions by thrashing Sri Lanka in the final on Tuesday.

The Hangzhou 2022 Games gold medallist and the recent Asia Cup winner, the Women in Blue came up with another dominant display at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Tuesday.

The Women in Blue starred in both departments, with Smriti Mandhana's 79 leading them to a record 216/3 in the final, while Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Shreyanka Patil and Sree Charani shared nine wickets to power India to a huge 147-run victory.

India scored the highest total in the history of the Women's Asian Games and the highest score in a Women's T20 final, delivering a record-breaking performance in the gold-medal clash.

In badminton, the men's team set itself up for a medal by storming into the semifinals with a commanding 3-0 win over hosts Japan.

Lakshya Sen overcame a major challenge from Kodai Naraoka in the opening singles with a sensational comeback from a game down for an 11-21, 21-5, 21-19 win before the doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty put India within touching distance of the last four. Ayush Shetty then completed the job with a straight-sets victory over Koki Watanabe.

India had begun its campaign with a 3-0 victory over Bangladesh in the round of 16. The men’s team will now await the winner of the China-South Korea quarterfinal in the semifinal on Wednesday.

The result also keeps India in contention to improve on their performance from the previous edition, where the men’s team won a silver medal after losing the final to China.

The Indian women's team was not so lucky as it went down 1-3 to the hosts, with the doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand securing their only win in the tie.

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu lost 21-23, 21-18, 21-11 to three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi, and Unnati Hooda lost to Yamaguchi here at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium as Japan led India 2-0. Tanvi Sharma lost to Nozomi Okuhara 21-12, 21-10 as India lost all three singles matches, suffered a 1-3 defeat, and made a disappointing exit.

In gymnastics, Pranati Nayak secures her spot in the women’s vault final by finishing 7th in qualification with 12.916. The Asian Championship and FIG World Cup medallist Pranati finished eighth at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou and will aim for a medal in the final.

India had success in the boxing ring too, with Sakshi Chaudhary and Jadumani Singh Mandengbam winning their bouts in their respective weight categories, maintaining their hopes of reaching the medal round.

In the women's 51kg, Sakshi secured a 5-0 victory over the Philippines’ Aira Villegas, a Paris Olympics bronze medallist, in the Round of 32 match-up.

In the men's 55kg, Jadumani Singh Mandengbam won by 5-0 against Chandra Bahadur Thapa (Nepal) in the Round of 32 at the Asian Games 2026.

The men's hockey team continued its dominant run with a second successive win in the preliminary stage, thrashing Sri Lanka 16-1 at Kakamigahara on Tuesday.

In the Pool A encounter, Jugraj Singh led the scoring spree with four goals, while Abhishek completed a hat-trick as India followed up their 13-1 victory over Indonesia in the opening game with another emphatic performance.

India took control almost immediately and opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Jarmanpreet Singh sent a dangerous ball into the circle before the ball was worked across to Mandeep Singh, who calmly turned it into the net.

The Indian men’s team will now turn their attention to the remaining Pool A fixtures as they continue their campaign for a place in the knockout stages.

--IANS

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