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NEW DELHI: Indian rowers scripted history after settling for two sliver medals for the first time in 12 years in the men’s four and men’s lightweight four events respectively on the sixth day of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

India’s Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishnan claimed the silver medal in the men’s four event. China won the gold while Uzbekistan took the bronze.

In the lightweight men’s four, Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav and Satish Joshi finished second to win silver. Japan took the gold while Hong Kong settled for bronze.

Earlier in the day, India’s Sania Mirza brushed aside Hong Kong’s Chan Wing Yau in under an hour, showing no signs of the illness which forced her out of the women’s team tournament, as she eased through her Asiad opener on Thursday.

Mirza, whose world ranking has slumped to 166 after a series of injuries, won 6-1, 6-0 and now tackles either Chinese sixth seed Zhang Shuai or Malika Rana of Nepal for a place in the quarterfinals.

With the addition of two silver medals, India’s medal tally rose to one gold, seven silver and seven bronze but the collection could have been far better had the shooters lived upto their reputation on Wednesday.

Unheralded Sandhyarani Devi proved to be the saving grace for India by bagging a silver medal in wushu on Wednesday. The Manipuri lost 0-2 to Iran’s Khadijeh Azadpour in the 60 kg final to fetch the second medal from the event.