Asian Games: India lose to Bahrain in handball preliminary stage

The Indian men’s handball team continued its losing streak going down 25-32 +to Bahrain in their second Group D match of the Asian Games in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Right from the opening whistle, Bahrain was on top of the Indians and although they bounced back in the second period matching the opponents’ score it wasn’t enough to stop them from winning. India scored 11 in the opening period which was seven less than what Bahrain managed. They both, however, were on par in the second scoring 14 each at the Kopki indoor stadium.

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Deepak Ahlawat scored six times out of 10 shots, while Adithya Nagraj scored four times from six shots for India. Karamjit Singh and Harender Singh also scored with the former netting five times from seven shots, while the latter scored four times from the same number of shots.

This was the second time in as many matches in the competition that India lost. They also suffered a heavy defeat of 18-28 against Chinese Taipei in their opening match of the Asian Games. Ranked 12^th India has been paired with Chinese Taipei and Bahrain in Group D. The 13 team competition has four different groups.

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The India men’s handball team found it difficult to enter the Asian Games with the policy allowing only teams ranked 8^th or higher from Asia. But the withdrawal of Australia, Uzbekistan, China, Oman, and UAE eventually placed India seventh among the teams participating from Asia.

But it was only after the Allahabad High Court had intervened and conveyed the message to the IOA were they allowed.

Earlier, the Indian women’s handball team had begun its Asian dreams with a 19-36 defeat to Kazakhstan in the preliminary round.