Asian Games 2018: Dismal start for Indian women basketball team

Representational image

The Indian women's 5x5 basketball team on Friday started their Asian Games 2018 campaign on a poor note. The Indian women were handed a disappointing  61-79 defeat by Kazakhstan in their Group A preliminary round. 

The team was overwhelmed 13-18, 12-19 in the first two quarters before a 21-22 fightback at the end of the third quarter. Kazakhstan Women’s team, however, outclassed the Indians 20-15 in the fourth quarter to seal the match. 

India Women will now take on World No. 40 Chinese Taipei Women’s team on Sunday. Unified Korea and host nation Indonesia are other teams in group A. India will meet Unified Korea and Indonesia on August 20 and 23 respectively in the preliminary round. 

Meanwhile, the Indian Men’s handball were handed their third straight defeat in the preliminary round. They were outclassed 29-40 by Iraq in a Group D match on Friday. 

India Men’s handball team went down 13-18 in the first period and were outwitted 16-22 in the second period. Deepak Ahlawat (8) and Karamjeet (6) were the top-scores for India. 

Earlier, the handball team had lost 28-38 to Chinese Taipei and 25-32 to Bahrain in the Group D preliminary round matches on August 13 and August 15 respectively. 

(With PTI inputs)