Feet on the Ground, Heads in the Clouds: Day 1 Agneepath 7.0 Report

Agneepath is back! 21 Ashokan teams were in action across 13 sports on Friday, marking a vibrant comeback of the fest after two editions of cancellations.

It was a winning start to the tournament for the women’s badminton and the men’s volleyball, football and basketball teams, who all remain unbeaten heading into Saturday’s fixtures. 

The men’s basketball team kicked off the day’s proceedings with Red and Blue recording solid wins over Shaheed Sukhdev and BML Munjal, while the men’s volleyball team swept aside Rishihood and Jindal with ease.

The Red and Blue men’s football teams recorded dominant 5-0 and 4-2 wins against Plaksha and Amity Haryana, respectively. Both teams continued their imperious form from Thursday’s evening fixtures, 6-0 and 4-0 wins over Rishihood for Red and noisy neighbours WUD for Blue. Friday afternoon also marked a return to action for the Alumni team, starring many a fan favourite, who showed their enduring class in a 2-1 win over BML Munjal.

The women’s badminton teams notched up 3-0 wins in all three matches. Ashoka Red beat Bennett and Plaksha, while Blue overcame Sharda. The men’s Red team cruised to a 3-0 victory over Rishihood, while Blue suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to BR Ambedkar.

Fortunes were similarly mixed for the women’s basketball teams, with rivals Jindal thumping Blue 37-7, while Red eased their way to a 30-16 win over Amity Noida.

A tight tennis contest saw Ashoka Red beat Manipal Jaipur 3-2, with wins in women’s singles and men’s doubles, and a walkover in the women’s doubles, getting the home team over the line.

The table tennis women’s Blue team began the day with a win against Sharda. What followed was a decidedly dour affair, with defeats against Hansraj (Women’s Blue), BML Munjal (Women’s Red and Men’s Blue) and Shiv Nadar (men’s Blue).

Men’s cricket and women’s volleyball saw both home teams suffering upsets. Ashoka Blue fell 5 runs short in a chase against Masters Union in the former, while Sharda came from behind to beat Ashoka Red 2-1 in the latter.

Ashoka Red beat Rishihood in their solitary pool fixture. And chess saw Ashoka Red beat Galgotias and Bennett, while Ashoka Blue suffered defeat to both.

All Ashokan teams sported black armbands in remembrance of Vignesh Shankar and Dhruvajyoti Sahu, who lost their lives last Agneepath. It was a poignant day for us at Edict Sports, with Vignesh’s absence keenly felt a year on from his passing.

Full Day 1 Results: (Winners in Bold)

Men’s Football

Ashoka Blue 4 - 2 Amity Haryana (Uday, Denzel, OG, Divyansh)

Ashoka Alumni 2 - 1 BML Munjal (Zahaan, Rohan)

Ashoka Red 5 - 0 Plaksha (SNS x2, Achappa x2, Chirag)

Men’s Basketball

Ashoka Red 43 - 17 Shaheed Sukhdev

Ashoka Blue (W) vs BML Munjal

Women’s Basketball

Ashoka B 7 - 37 O.P Jindal

Ashoka A 30 - 16 Amity Noida

Men’s Volleyball

Ashoka 2 - 0 Rishihood (25-14, 25-17)

Ashoka 2 - 0 Jindal (25-18, 25-21)

Women’s Volleyball

Ashoka Red 1 - 2 Sharda University (25-21, 18-25, 11-15)

Men’s Badminton

Ashoka B 2 - 3 BR Ambedkar (Naman Donti, Nirajit, Shalom, Deshmukh and Vidish)

Rishihood 0 - 3 Ashoka A (Shaan, Bapna, Taanish)

Women’s Badminton

Bennett 0 - 3 Ashoka A (Kavvya, Anandita)

Sharda 0 - 3 Ashoka B (Aahana, Nishta, Raina)

Plaksha 0 - 3 Ashoka A (Anandita, Samantha, Ananya, Jia)

Men’s Table Tennis

Ashoka B 1 - 3 BML Munjal University

Ashoka B 2 - 3 Shiv Nadar University

Women’s Table Tennis

Ashoka B 3 - 2 Sharda

Ashoka B  0 - 3 Hansraj

Ashoka A  1 - 3 BML Munjal

Tennis

Ashoka A 3 - 2 Manipal University Jaipur

[(Sarthak (L), Anushka G (W), Sarthak + Anushka (L), Agriya + Arnav Yadav (W))

Sarthak 1-6 MUJ, AG 7-5 MUJ, S+AG 3 - 6 MUJ, Women’s doubles Walkover, A+AY 7-6 (7-3)]

Men’s Cricket

Ashoka Blue (106/5) vs Masters Union (111/5)

Chess

Ashoka A (W) vs Galgotias

Ashoka B (L) vs Bennett University

Ashoka A (W) vs Bennett

Ashoka B (L) vs Galgotias University

Pool

Ashoka A (W) vs Rishihood

Day 0

Men’s Football

Ashoka Red 6 - 0 Rishihood (SNS x2, Achappa x2, Viraat, Jaidhar)

Ashoka Blue 4 - 0 WUD (Uday, Denzel, Aryaveer, Unarkat)

*Scores for some games are being currently updated Edited by Arjun Vinod & Tanush Guha