Asian Games: India Women Fight Back In Table Tennis To Secure Second Win

The Indian women's team scripted a fine comeback to script a 3-2 win over Singapore in their Group F match of the table tennis event at the Asian Games here on Sunday. India were staring at defeat after trailing 1-2 before Sreeja Akula and Yashaswini Ghorpade secured crucial wins to clinch the tie. Opening the proceedings, Ghorpade defeated Jian Zeng 11-7, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9. But Sreeja Akula suffered a narrow 8-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 6-11 loss to Loy Ming in the second match. Diya Chitale too went down 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 5-11 against Tan Zhao to concede a 1-2 lead to Singapore. Returning for a must-win match against Zeng Jian, Sreeja shrugged off the earlier loss to register a 6-11 11-3, 11-7, 11-4 win to level the tie at 2-2. In the decider, Ghorpade beat Loy Ming 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 4-11, 11-9 to notch up a memorable win for India.

Earlier, India's men's and women's teams began their campaigns with identical 3-0 wins over Indonesia in their respective Group F openers The women's team began on a winning note as Sreeja, Diya and Yashaswini swept their Indonesian opponents.

Sreeja beat Ni Maharani 3-1 in the opening rubber, recovering from an 8-11 second-game loss to win 11-3, 11-4, 11-4.

Diya then defeated Almaira Nebuchadnezzar 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-5) before Yashaswini sealed the tie with a 3-0 (12-10, 11-4, 11-4) win over Citra Rasmi.

The men followed with an equally dominant 3-0 victory, though they were pushed harder in the second rubber.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran put India ahead with a 3-0 win over Muhammad Negara, prevailing 11-8, 11-7, 11-9.

Manav Thakkar then survived a five-game battle against Muhammad Junindra, winning 3-2. Manav took the first game 11-7, dropped the second 8-11, and regained the lead by winning the third 11-6.

Junindra forced a decider by taking the fourth 11-6, but Manav held his nerve to win the fifth 11-9.

Manush Shah completed the men's sweep with a 3-0 win over Affan Pratama, prevailing 11-9, 11-9, 12-10.

India's women are grouped alongside Indonesia, Pakistan and Singapore in Group F.

The men's team is clubbed with Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia.

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Box Office: Vibe Opens At Rs 1.50 Crore, Earns More Than Kareena's Daayra

Kunal Kemmu's Vibe has opened to a modest response at the domestic box office. 

What's Happening

The comedy-action film, which marks Kemmu's second directorial venture after Madgaon Express, arrived in theatres on Friday.

According to Sacnilk, Vibe has earned Rs 1.50 crore nett in India on its opening day. 

The film was screened across 3,194 shows and recorded an overall occupancy of 13.38% on Friday.

The film saw a gradual increase in audience turnout through the day. 

Its morning shows recorded around 6% occupancy, which rose to 11.31% in the afternoon before reaching approximately 14% in the evening.

Among the major cities, Delhi-NCR recorded the highest occupancy for Vibe, at around 13% across 440 shows. Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad followed with approximately 11% occupancy each.

Mumbai also registered around 11% occupancy, with the film running across 328 shows in the city.

Background

Interestingly, Vibe has opened with the same first-day collection as Kunal Kemmu's directorial debut Madgaon Express. The 2024 film also earned Rs 1.50 crore India net on its opening day before gradually finding a wider audience, particularly after its OTT release.

Vibe also found itself competing with another new release, Daayra, which hit theatres on the same day. The crime thriller is led by Kunal Kemmu's sister-in-law Kareena Kapoor and also stars Prithviraj Sukumaran.

The film has collected an estimated Rs 90 lakh India nett on Day 1, per Sacnilk.

Meanwhile, Vibe has started ahead of a couple of other recent releases. Aamir Khan's son Junaid Khan and Sai Pallavi's Ek Din earned Rs 1.15 crore on its opening day, while Imtiaz Ali's Main Vaapas Aaunga also collected Rs 1.15 crore on Day 1.
 

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Asian Games Forced To Apologise After Anthem Blunder In South Korea Match

Asian Games organisers offered "deepest apologies" on Saturday for playing the North Korean national anthem for the South Korean men's hockey team. South Korean officials were left angered by the latest mishap to hit the Nagoya-Aichi Games, which officially opened after a troubled build-up. At their Friday contest against Bangladesh, South Korea's players lined up for the traditional playing of the anthems, only to look bemused as North Korea's song rang out. Organisers then played Bangladesh's anthem and later the South Korean one, the South's Yonhap news agency said. South Korea went on to win 5-0.

"During the men's hockey match between (South) Korea and Bangladesh on September 18, an incorrect national anthem was mistakenly played before the match," the Asian Games organising committee told AFP on Saturday.

The statement said that, on Friday, "officials responsible for (National Olympic Committee) relations visited the delegation of the Republic of Korea and offered their sincere apologies for the incident".

"We will also work to prevent a recurrence and would like to express our deepest apologies to all those affected by this matter."

A stadium announcer apologised for the blunder but Min Tae-seok, coach of South Korea, was unimpressed.

"This is a really serious problem. When we protested, they said, 'We're sorry. It wasn't that it wasn't prepared, there was a mistake on the part of those responsible for playing it'," he said.

"But this is something that simply should never happen."

The build-up to the Games has been overshadowed by complaints from teams about the quality and amount of accommodation.

Some teams were also stranded at the airport for up to six hours when they landed this week.

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UBS Retains 'Buy' For HDFC Bank Stock; Sees Re-Rating After CEO Uncertainty Eases

UBS has maintained its Buy rating on HDFC Bank with a target price of Rs 1,000, saying resolution of the bank's leadership uncertainty could drive a near-term re-rating in the stock.

HDFC Bank has submitted the names of two candidates to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the next Managing Director and CEO, with clarity on the successor expected soon. The current CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan is set to step down at the end of October.

According to UBS, resolution of the leadership overhang could act as a key near-term catalyst for the stock.

UBS expects HDFC Bank's loan growth to improve further after early signs of recovery. Loan growth stood at 15.6% in first quarter of fiscal 2027, and the brokerage expects it to move towards 15% over FY27-29E. The bank's loan growth has already shown improvement, with first quarter 2027 advances growth around 15.5% according to industry data.

UBS also expects margins to improve towards 3.5%, supported by a gradual shift towards a higher retail loan mix.

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The brokerage expects HDFC Bank's return on assets (RoA) to improve to 1.9% in FY27/FY28E as growth and margins recover. UBS also sees scope for future productivity gains from the bank's branch network. Around 42% of HDFC Bank's branches are less than five years old, providing room for these newer branches to mature and contribute more meaningfully to the bank's business.

On the liability side, UBS forecasts deposit CAGR of 15.5% over FY26-28E.

UBS said HDFC Bank's valuation remains supportive, with the stock trading at around 1.4 times fiscal 2028E price-to-book value (P/BV). The bank is also trading at a 33% discount to its own long-term average P/BV, according to UBS.

HDFC Bank trades at a 30% discount to ICICI Bank on the same metric, with UBS noting that this represents the widest-ever discount between the two banks.

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