Glasgow: Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa created history by winning the first-ever gold medal in squash while pugilists Sarita Devi and Devendro Singh had to be content with silver as India added four more medals to their kitty on the tenth day of competitions in the 20th Games here today.
Dipika and Joshana stole the limelight with their historic feat as they beat Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro of England 11-6, 11-8 in the womens doubles squash final. It was the first squash medal for India in the Commonwealth Games.
Sarita Devi and Devendro Singh were the other star performers during the day with their silver-winning achievements in the boxing ring while Sakina Khatun claimed an unexpected bronze in powerlifting as India made a last-ditch effort to boost their medals tally.
Sarita lost to Shelley Watts of Australia after a gritty fight in women's lightweight (57-60kg) category final while her younger brother Devendro was beaten by Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland in the men's light-flyweight (46-49kg) final at the Hydro Arena.
Devendro was no match for Barnes and the unanimous 3-0 verdict in favour of the Irish reflected that.
With the two silver today, India has bagged three medals from boxing with Pinki Jangra having won a bronze after losing her semifinal bout against Michaela Walsh of Northern Ireland in women's 51kg category yesterday.
The collection of four more medals took India's overall tally to 55 with 14 gold, 25 silver and 16 bronze.
India maintained their fifth position in the medal standings with England topping the charts with a total collection of 145 medals followed by Australia (125), Canada (75) and Scotland (49).
Sakina Khatun did India proud by winning a bronze medal in the women's lightweight (upto 61 kg) powerlifting event.
The Bangalore-born powerlifter finished behind Nigeria's Esther Oyema (Gold) and England's Natalie Blake (Silver) settle at third position.
The Indian lifted a total weight of 88.2 kilograms, while Esther lifted 136kgs and Natalie managed 100.2kgs.
India kept themselves on course for a historic gold medal in the badminton event with P Kashyap just a win away while 2010 champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, too, were on course to defend their title. Young P V Sindhu, however, suffered a heartbreaking loss.
World No. 22 Kashyap played out of his skin to avenge his loss to England's Rajiv Ouseph, who had beaten him at the 2010 Delhi Games and also dumped him during the mixed team event at the Emirates Arena here.
In an energy-sapping one hour and 23 minute match, Kashyap bounced back from a game down to edge out World No. 26 Ouseph 18-21 21-17 21-18 and assure himself of at least a silver medal.
Delhi Games gold medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini too notched up an easy 21-7 21-12 win over Lai Pei Jing and Loo Yin Lim in the women's doubles semifinals to set up a final showdown with World No. 18 Malaysian combo of Vivian Kah Mun Hoo and Khe Wei Woon.
However, Sindhu, who is playing her first Commonwealth Games, could not go the distance in women's singles as she went down fighting to Michelle Li of Canada 22-20 22-20 in the last-four encounter.
This was her second defeat to Li in the tournament. The Indian had lost to the Hong Kong-born shuttler in the mixed team event.
The Hyderabad girl will meet Malaysia's Jing Yi Tee in the bronze medal contest later in the day. Jing was defeated by World No. 17 Kirsty Gilmour from Scotland in the other semifinal.
It could have been an all-Indian final showdown in the men's singles but RMV Gurusaidutt could not recreate the same magic which saw him beat top seed Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia last night in the quarterfinals.
After battling for more than an hour, Guru finally went down 21-16 19-21 15-21 against World No. 40 Derek Wong of Singapore in the other semifinals.
London Olympics quarterfinalist, Kashyap will now take on Wong in the summit clash tomorrow.
In men's hockey, India came from two goals down to defeat New Zealand 3-2 in the semifinals to set up a summit showdown with holders Australia.
Trailing 0-2 in the 18th minute, India sans regular skipper Sardar Singh were revived by strikes from stand-in-captain Rupinder Singh Pal, Ramandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh, who ensured at least a silver medal for the country.
The Kiwis drew first blood in the second minute with Simon Child taking a neat cross pass to put the ball screeching into the net.
The Black Sticks continued with their fine show and three minutes later, Hugo Inglis fired at the net again but this time it was stopped by the Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh Ravindran.
Indian fullback Rupinder also came up a with a forceful hit at the Kiwi net but goalkeeper Hamish McGregor was alert to put the strike at bay.
The New Zealanders missed a penalty corner in the 10th minute but they did not repeat the mistake when they got the next opportunity, as hard-hitter Nick Haig scored on the rebound to double the lead in the 18th minute.
Achanta Sharath Kamal proved to be no match for Singapore's Jian Zhan as the Indian was blanked 4-0 in a one-sided men's singles table tennis semifinal match.
The top Indian paddler lost 11-6 11-6 11-6 11-8 to his 32-year-old opponent from Singapore at the Scotstown Campus.
That the 32-year-old from Chennai, who had won a gold in the 2006 Melbourne Games, struggled to match up to Zhan's play could be gauged from the fact that the match was over in just 27 minutes. The scoreline also reflects the one-sided nature of the match.
Kamal had earlier teamed up with Anthony Amalraj to win a silver medal for India after losing to Singapore's Gao Ning and Hu Li in the final of the men's doubles table tennis event.
