Bangladesh men’s kabaddi team strolled to a comfortable victory of 52-17 points against Japan in their opening match but the women’s side conceded a surprising 37-24 defeat to Nepal to begin the 19th Asian Games campaign.
The men’s side dominated the game and raided all Japan players out on four occasions while women’s team were raided out by Nepal four times and outplayed in both halves.
Placed in Group A, Bangladesh men’s team will face mighty India Tuesday before taking on Chinese Taipei and Thailand later on in their bid to reach the semi-finals and regain an Asiad medal.
The chances for the women’s side to make it to the last-four have lessened and they now must beat Iran in their final Group B fixture Wednesday.
Since the introduction of kabaddi at the 1990 Asian Games, Bangladesh had bagged at least a medal in each competition until the last edition held in Indonesia five years ago.
