Defending champions Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal shrugged off the opening game lapse to thrash Pakistan 2-1 in their opening Group stage match at the Commonwealth Games here today.

In the first match of the day, the 2014 winners beat Pakistan’s Fazia Zafar and Madina Zafar 10-11, 11-0, 11-1. The third seed Indian pair wrapped the match in just 22 minutes. They will next play Tesni Evans and Deon Saffery of Wales tomorrow.

Both Chinappa and Pallikal have exited from the singles competition.

In group E of the mixed doubles draw, Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal cruised past the Guyanese pairing of Mary Fung-A-Fat and Jason-Ray Khalil 11-3, 11-3. The fifth seed Indian duo then outplayed arch-rivals Pakistan’s Madina Zafar and Tayyab Aslam 11-2, 11-3.

“Given world political situation, people get a little bit more excited. But for us it is about being objective and understanding what we need to do against whoever we play,” Ghosal said after the win.

Asked about the unceremonious resignation of Egyptian coach Achraf El Karargui before the CWG games Pallikal said: “We play at a professional standard and we travel enough without a coach. We handled the situation well. It’s not the best scenario to have lost the Indian coach but I think we have all come into the Games as a team“.

Meanwhile, in Group H the eighth seed pairing of Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu hardly lost any sweat to outclass Cayman Islands’ Caroline Laing and Jacob Kelly 11-3, 11-6 in merely 13 minutes.

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