Deotale-Jyothi pair wins compound mixed team gold
Hangzhou (PTI): A supremely confident Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam dropped just one point to defeat their South Korean opponents by one-point and clinch their second gold medal in archery at the Asian Games here on Wednesday.
With this, Indian archers are set to win at least four medals from the ongoing Games, which will better their previous best show at Incheon in 2014 when they bagged a men's team compound gold, one silver and a bronze.
In a gold medal clash between the top-two seeds, the No. 1 Indian pair was near perfect and pipped So Chaewon and Joo Jaehoon 159-158.
The Indian duo entered the final with a 159-154 win over Kazakhstan. They had just one '9' and the rest were all '10s' in the semifinals against the Kazakh pair of Adel Zhexenbinova and Andrey Tyutyun.
Earlier in the day, the Indians held their nerve to beat Malaysia 158-155 and advance into the semifinals.
Kazakhstan defeated Thailand 154-152.
Earlier, the Indian pair had a strong start to take a 40-39 lead but in the second-end both of them dropped two points as the Malaysian pair of Mohd Juwaidi Bin Mazuki and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh bounced back to draw level.
Reigning senior world champion Deotale, who was taking the first shot for India, missed the 10-ring by millimetres in the second end to put pressure on her senior teammate Jyothi.
The multiple World Cup gold medallist Jyothi also faltered to concede the second end to their rivals by one-point (38-39).
But the duo showed grit to come up with all 10s while shooting first in the third end as a strong Mohd Juwaidi dropped his first-point of the day that helped India regain the lead (118-117).
In the deciding fourth end, the Malaysian shot first and put pressure with back-to-back 10s but the Indian duo held their composure and responded in style with as many 10s.
It was Jyothi's arrow that was bang on target, proving to be decisive as in the next shot the 32-year-old Fatin Nurfatehah hit the red-ring for an 8 to concede the match to the Indians.
The Indian archers had on Tuesday confirmed three medals to match their best-ever feat of Incheon 2014 at the continental showpiece.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
