India crashes out

India tasted its first setback of the 11th South Asian Games here on Friday. First the Indian football team bowed out in the semifinals losing to host Bangladesh 0-1 and later the men’s basketball team was beaten by Afghanistan in a rousing final 65-64.

At the end of the eighth day, India’s medal tally stood at 40 gold, 17 silver and 10 bronze medals. India earned eight gold, three silver and a bronze on Friday.

After stunning defending champion Pakistan 5-1 in the final group league match at Chittagong to qualify for the last four stage India’s elimination was an anti-climax. India will play for the bronze medal.

Egged on by vociferous spectators, the Bangladesh attacks came in waves but the inexperienced Indians held their ground for almost 85 minutes. When it seemed the match would go into extra time, Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu made a silly error by deflecting Abdul Baten Mojumder Komol’s low shot in the way of substitute Tawhidul Alam Sabuz who made no mistake.
Tragic

If the football team’s exit was sad, the defeat of the basketballers at the hands of Afghanistan in the final was tragic. Trailing 35-44 at half-time, the Indians made a remarkable recovery in the next two quarters to tie the score at 58-all. The Indians, 49th in the FIBA ranking, kept the pressure on and took the vital lead with four minutes to go.

Jagdeep Singh, who was the Indian playmaker, missed a couple of lay-up shots at the crucial minutes and this allowed the Afghanistan to sink in a two-pointer to regain the lead by one point.

Interestingly, Afghanistan had beaten India in the group league game and won its first gold medal of these Games. Bangladesh defeated Nepal 75-62 to take the bronze medal.

The Indian hockey team ensured its final entry with a 3-3 draw against Bangladesh. It will play Pakistan in Sunday’s final after the latter handed Sri Lanka a 2-0 defeat to qualify as the second team.

Kamaruzzaman (20th), Pushkor (30th) gave Bangladesh a 2-0 lead at half-time. V. Raghunath (52nd ) scored off a penalty corner, Mohammad Aamir Khan (59th) and Dharamveer Singh (67th) gave India the lead. But it was short-lived as Kamaruzzaman scored with 40 seconds to go to get the draw.

The host will take on Sri Lanka for the bronze medal.

Both the Indians, light-fly Amandeep Singh and fly weight Suranjoy Singh moved into the semifinals of the boxing event.

There will be another India-Pakistan final, this time in the squash team event on Saturday. Both India and Pakistan beat Nepal and Sri Lanka by 3-0 margins.