Indian shuttlers got off to a flying start, thrashing Nepal and Bangladesh by identical 5-0 margins in their first and second engagements on the inaugural day of the 1st South Asian Regional (SAARC) Badminton Tournament here on Monday.
India's first tie of the day saw Aryaman Tandon defeat Nepal's Nabin Shreshtha 21-8, 18-21, 21-14 in the boys' singles clash. Tandon had a minor hiccup in the second game but regained control as the match went down to the wire.
In the girls' singles section, India's Aakarshi Kashyap defeated Rashila Maharjan 21-5, 21-7 in straight games to make it 2-0 in favour of the hosts.
Next up were the robust pair of Arintap Das Gupta and Krishna Prasad taking on the might of Nabin Shreshtha and Dipesh Dhami. But the latter pair were shredded to pieces in the second game after a valiant fight in the first as the clash ended 21-18, 21-9.
The same trend followed in the girls' singles and mixed doubles clashes as the Indians defeated their respective opponents to seal the tie.
The Indian shuttlers dominated the second tie as well, defeating all their opponents from Bangladesh in straight games.
Tandon breezed past Hamidur Rahman Lukman 21-9, 21-8, whereas Kashyap displayed her elegance as she rolled over Urmi Akther with ease (21-11, 21-4) in the boys' and girls' singles respectively.
Arintap and Krishna Prasad didn't have an easy time out as both their games were evenly contested but the Indian pair came out on top in straight sets (21-15, 21-18) in the boys' doubles clash.
However, the girls' doubles pair were in no mood to let points slip and seemed to be in a hurry to finish off the clash as they defeated Rasma Akther and Urmi Akther 21-8, 21-5 in comprehensive fashion.
The Indian team remained unbeaten on the first day as Krishna Prasad and Mithula U.K's mixed doubles pair also finished off Akther and Al Amin Jumar with a score of 21-7, 21-6.
In other encounters on day one, even though Nepal were washed out by the Indians, they registered a sweeping victory against Bhutan as they beat them 5-0 while Maldives lost out to Bhutan 2-3 in a hard fought encounter.
--IANS
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