Jakarta: Indian women’s basketball team opened its campaign at the 18th Asian Games on a disappointing note, losing 61-79 to Kazakhstan in the Group A preliminary round on Friday.
The Indian women were outclassed in the first two quarters (13-18, 12-19) before they tried to make a comeback with a 21-22 score in the third quarter but Kazakhstan outwitted their rivals 20-15 in the fourth quarter.
They will face Chinese Taipei on Sunday, before taking on Unified Korea and hosts Indonesia on August 20 and August 23 respectively in the basketball 5×5 preliminary group A matches.
In handball, the Indian men’s team also had a dismal outing as they went down 29-40 to Iraq in a Group D preliminary match.
Deepak Ahlawat (8) and Karamjeet Singh (6) were the top-scorer for India but it was not enough as they were outclassed 13-18 in the first period and then 16-22 in the second period.
The Indian men’s team had lost to Chinese Taipei (28-38) on August 13, before losing 25-32 to Bahrain on August 15. (PTI)
