The Bangladesh women's cricket team moved into the Twenty20 semifinals while the national hockey team scared their mighty opponents Japan before going down 3-1 in their first match of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China yesterday.
It was a mixed day for the chess players while the shooters, swimmers and weightlifters put up a poor showing in their respective events.
The women's team handed a 54-run defeat to Japan, thanks to an all-round performance by Shuktara Rahman at the Guangdong Cricket Stadium.
After opting to bat first, Bangladesh posted a challenging total of 111 for eight in their stipulated 20 overs riding on good contributions of the top-order batswomen.
Opener Farjana Haque fell on seven before Rumana Ahmed and captain Salma Khatun steadied the innings scoring 21 and 24 respectively as both batswomen hammered two fours each.
Shuktara came in at number four to strike 37 off 45 balls with the help of two boundaries while late order Tithy Sarkar and Tazia Akhter chipped in with five runs each to help their side cross the 100-mark.
In reply, Japan responded well to threaten Bangladesh before Salma broke the 33-run opening stand uprooting the stumps of Kuribayashi Ema, who scored a 30-ball 18 studded with two fours.
The dismissal of Ema sparked a quick collapse and Japan were reduced to 41 for six at one stage as Shuktara captured three for six in her four-over spell. Japan finally could manage 57 for eight in 20 overs.
At the Aoti Hockey Stadium, Krishna Kumar stunned Japan to put Bangladesh ahead in the very ninth minute through a field goal. They held the lead till the 47th minute before Japan bit back to win the game convincingly.
After going down against Bangladesh, the Japanese pressed hard to equalize the margin but they could not split the Bangladesh defense in the first half and took 12 minutes after the start of the second half to level the margin.
Yamabori Takahiko converted a penalty corner to level the margin in the 47th minute while captain Tsubounchi Kazuhiro gave Japan lead in the 56th minute through another penalty corner.
In the dying minutes, Japan sealed the fate of the game with Ozawa Kazuyuki scoring a lone field goal in the 69th minute after Japan saw their pervious 14 attempts blocked by goalkeeper Zahid Hossain or the defenders.
In the fifth and sixth rounds of men's individual chess, GM Niaz Murshed beat Nepalese Shrestha Bilam but lost to Indonesian Megaranto Susanto while his teammate FM Minhazuddin Ahmed lost to Mongolian Namkhai Battulqa in the sixth round before winning the seventh round board against Mohamed Hassan of Maldives.
In the women's chess event, WFM Sharmin Akter Liza lost to Tuvshintugs Batchi of Mongolia and Iranian Paridar Shadi in the sixth and seventh round while Sultana Sharmin Shirin lost to Nur Nabila Azman of Malaysia in the sixth round but bounced back in the seventh round to beat Al Zarouni of United Arab Emirates.
In shooting, Ramjan Ali, Taufiq Shahriar Khan and Abdullah Hel Baki finished 14th, 31st and 44th out of 54 competitors in the men's individual 50m rifle prone after scoring 589, 585 and 580 respectively. Their individual efforts helped them to finish ninth in the team's 50m rifle prone.
In the women's 50m rifle prone, Sabrina Sultna, Tripti Datta and Sharmin Shilpa did poorly finishing 28th, 40th and 46th out of 50 shooters.
In swimming, Mahfuza Khatun took 39.84 seconds to finish the 50m backstroke distance and became the 19th swimmers among 21 while her teammate Kamal Hossain finished 26th out of 29 in the 100m Breaststroke with a timing of 1:08.24 minutes.
In weightlifting, Fahima Akhter lifted 155kg, nine kg less than her Commonwealth Games performance to finish sixth out of seven competitors in 58kg category while SA Games gold medallist Hamidul Islam frustrated in the 69kg category to lift 263kg -- 115 in snatch and 148 in clean & jerk -- to finish second from the bottom among 16 weightlifters.
Mesbah Uddin finished bottom among 16 competitors in the nanquan and nangun all-round wushu event scoring 6.95. Mesbah was the lone performer who failed to qualify for the finals.
-The Daily Star
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