India’s Dominant Day: Grit in Table Tennis, Precision in Shooting, and a 19-Goal Hockey Victory
On a packed multi-sport day, India’s athletes swung between tightrope tension and outright demolition. The table tennis hall crackled with nerves, the shooting range demanded icy focus, and the hockey turf in the women’s clash against Uzbekistan turned into a scoring festival.
Table tennis: Manav and Manush drag India clear
India’s men’s team found themselves in a proper scrap against Indonesia in their Group F tie, and it took steel from Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah to tilt the contest.
Manav set the tone. His 3-2 win over Muhammad Junindra was not pretty, but it was the kind of win that anchors a team performance. He took the opener 11-7, slipped 8-11 in the second, then reasserted control 11-6 in the third. Junindra refused to fold, forcing a decider with an 11-6 response of his own.
Then came the knife-edge.
World No. 48 Manav burst out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth, seemingly cruising. Junindra clawed back, point by point, until it was 7-7 and every rally felt like a mini-match. Manav didn’t blink. He tightened his angles, cut out the errors and closed it 11-8, dragging India into a 2-0 overall lead and giving the bench some breathing room.
While that drama was unfolding, the third rubber brought a different kind of comeback story.
Manush Shah, facing Affan Pratama, started both games on the back foot. In the opener, he trailed 3-6, searching for rhythm. Then the switch flipped. Manush began to dictate with heavier topspin and sharper placement, reeling off points to steal the game 11-9.
The second game looked even worse at the start. Pratama raced away to 6-1, then held a 9-7 advantage. One more point and the Indonesian would have been back in the contest. Instead, Manush surged. Four points in a row, another 11-9, and suddenly he stood 2-0 up in the match, turning early deficits into a position of total control.
India’s 2-0 cushion against Indonesia didn’t come from dominance. It came from nerve.
Shooting: silver on the range, two Indians in the final
Away from the noise of the arena, India’s women shooters pieced together a polished team performance in the 10m air rifle.
The trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod combined for a total of 1898 to claim the silver medal in the team event. China, relentless as ever in rifle shooting, edged them with 1904.2 to take gold, while Japan secured bronze with 1897.1.
Within that tight scoring band, every decimal mattered.
Sonam led the Indian charge with 634.1, Elavenil followed closely with 633.5, and both did enough to book their places in the individual final. Vidarsa, with 630.4, finished 12th, just outside the top-eight cut, underlining how fine the margins are at this level.
The final, scheduled for 11:00 AM IST, now offers Sonam and Elavenil a shot at individual glory after banking a team medal. One event down, another pressure test to come.
Hockey: India women unleash a 19-goal statement
If the table tennis and shooting were about composure, the women’s hockey match against Uzbekistan was about raw, unfiltered dominance.
India walked onto the pitch chasing a benchmark: their record 22-0 win. They didn’t quite match it. They still left with a 19-0 victory and a message to the rest of the field.
This was their first-ever meeting with Uzbekistan. It felt like a mismatch from the first whistle.
Attack after attack rolled in waves, and at the heart of it stood Deepika Sehrawat. She didn’t just have a good game; she produced a historic one. With eight goals to her name, Deepika set a new mark for the most goals scored by a woman in a single hockey match. Eight times she found a way through, eight times the scoreboard flickered her name.
Around her, India’s structure under coach Sjoerd Marijne looked ruthless and organised. The press suffocated Uzbekistan, turnovers turned into quick entries, and the finishing rarely faltered. By the closing stages, the result was long beyond doubt; only the margin and the records remained in play.
The final hooter confirmed it: IND 19-0 UZB. Not quite 22-0, but more than enough to announce the start of India’s campaign in emphatic fashion.
On a day that spanned tight deciders, precision shooting and a 19-goal avalanche, one question lingers: if this is the opening act, how much higher can India push the ceiling in the days ahead?
