Nagoya: Rare silver medals in skiff sailing and greco roman wrestling were the high points for India while the country's defending champion men's teams in cricket and hockey moved into the finals with contrasting performances in pursuit of a golden finish at the Asian Games here on Thursday.
India's overall medal haul rose to 65, including 10 gold, 23 silver and 32 bronze which kept the country inside the top-10 of the standings.
Kerala cousins Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis gave the Indian contingent an early reason to celebrate with their silver-wining effort in men's skiff competition, finishing behind China and ahead of Hong Kong, China after winning one and finishing second in three of the nine races in the regatta. This was India's first sailing medal of the ongoing edition.
The Indian team of Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma claimed the women's bronze in the same event.
In the second half of the day, Nitesh Siwach (97kg) lost his final 0-4 to Japan's Yuri Nakazato to settle for a silver, which is a rarity for India in greco roman events.
In between, both the men's and women's squash teams ended with bronze medals after losing their semifinal clashes along with compound archer Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru.
Anahat Singh, Joshana Chinappa, Tanvi Khanna, Shameena Riaz were the first to sign off after losing 1-2 to Hong Kong.
Singles silver-winner Anahat was expected to steer India but she ended up squandering four match points to go down 2-3 (11-9 11-8 6-11 11-13 10-12) against world No. 25 Sin Yuk Chan in a thrilling opening match.
World No. 73 Tanvi then scripted a fine comeback with a 1-3 (4-11 13-11 11-9 13-11) win over world No. 40 Ka Yi Lee to keep India's hopes alive in the three-match contest. However, veteran Joshana Chinappa, a former world top-10 player, suffered a straight-game loss to world No. 39 Ho Tze Lok.
Later, the defending champion men's squad of Abhay Singh, Velavan Senthilkumar, Veer Chotrani and Suraj Chand were beaten 1-2 by Malaysia to sign off with a third-place finish this time.
Compound archer Ganesh Mani Ratnam Thirumuru also added bronze to the tally by making a comeback to win his men's individual bronze medal clash with a commanding performance.
Ganesh, who was a part of the gold-winning men's team on Wednesday, defeated Vietnam's Cong Duc Dang 149-144.
It was perfect shooting from the 20-year-old Indian in the playoff as he was on mark in 14 out of his 15 shots.
Ganesh had lost 144-148 to Kim Jongho of South Korea in the semifinal after he could not replicate his stupendous quarterfinal form. He trailed throughout in the last-four stage and eventually went down 29-30 29-30 29-28 29-30 28-30.
Cricket domination
The Shreyas Iyer-led Indian T20 side was short on both practice and game time for its semifinals against Sri Lanka. But that hardly mattered when the action began as the Indians first posted a daunting 169/7 on the difficult track before dismissing the Lankans for a record low of 45 runs to march into the finals.
The win was built around a very calculated 46-ball unbeaten 80 by Ishan Kishan and the predictable brilliance of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel, both of whom picked up two wickets a piece.
Pakistan awaits India in the final after beating Bangladesh in the other semifinals and the intense discussion can now be expected about the possibility, or the lack of it, of a handshake between players of the two sides.
Pak spook India in hockey
Defending champions India survived a massive scare in the semifinal against Pakistan but Abhishek struck with just 45 seconds remaining on the clock to snatch a dramatic 4-3 victory that sealed the side a place in the men's hockey final.
Harmanpreet converted two perfectly executed penalty corners in the 5th and 13th minutes, while Sukhjeet Singh scored a field goal in the 23rd minute. Abhishek scored the winning goal for India from a field play in the final minute of the game.
Pakistan's goals were scored by Abu Mahmood (30th minute), Hannan Shahid (45th) and Waheed Rana (49th).
The defending champions looked set for a comfortable semifinal win after captain Harmanpreet's brace and Sukhjeet Singh's field strike put them firmly in control.
But a stunning second-half collapse allowed Pakistan to claw their way back as they scored three goals and push India to the brink of an embarrassing defeat before Abhishek's late strike rescued the contest.
India, who had dominated the opening half, inexplicably retreated into their shell after the break, surrendering control of the midfield and allowing Pakistan's young forwards to dictate the pace and flow of the game. With their defence under sustained pressure and their attacking threat blunted, the Indians were left scrambling to protect their lead.
Just as the contest appeared headed for a shootout, Abhishek found the decisive touch, with his effort taking a deflection off Pakistan defender Sufiyan and beating goalkeeper Ali Raza to send India into the final, where they will meet the winner of the other semifinal between South Korea and Malaysia.
India in contention for twin medals in golf
The unstoppable Pranavi Urs fired a blistering seven-under 63 in the second round of the golf competition to be just two strokes behind leader Shannon Tan (64) of Singapore at the sole second spot.
Urs started her opening round with back-to-back birdies, sinking four in her first six holes before adding three more in a spectacular stretch from the 13th to the 16th.
What was even better was that there was no bogey in her round.
Her spectacular charge also transformed the women's team competition, lifting India into the bronze-medal position at seven-under-par 273 as Diksha Dagar (71-73) was T-21st and Aditi Ashok (71-74) was T-25.
The two best scores in each round count towards the team medals.
Medal confirmed in sepaktakraw
India men's quadrant competition semifinals with a 2-1 win over Myanmar, keeping an unbeaten run intact to top group A and be assured of at least a bronze.
India beat Myanmar 10-15 15-13 15-7 after having defeated Laos and Vietnam in their first two matches. The 2-0 (15-12 15-9) win over Vietnam came earlier in the day. Indonesia topped Group B.
The semifinals will be held on Friday.
Tennis draws a blank
Indian's tennis contingent will return empty-handed from the Asian Games for the first time since 1986, following the quarterfinal exit of Sumit Nagal in the men's singles event, ending the national campaign here.
Nagal went down 4-6 4-6 to China's Yibing Wu in one hour and 38 minutes on Thursday.
The judokas, cyclists and pistol shooter Anish Bhanwala failed to finish on the podium making early exits from their respective events despite decent starts.
