Seeking a record fifth straight gold, defending champions India opened their title defence in style as they humbled Bangladesh 40-21 in the Kabaddi competition at the 15th Asian Games in Doha on Saturday.
The winners, who led 24-14 at half time, should have won by a much bigger margin but their overconfident and complacent defence gave away many points to their rivals in an otherwise one-sided match.
The Indians raced to a decent 7-1 lead in no time as the match started but their defenders let go some easy points as the Bangladeshi raiders were allowed to slip out.
But the defensive lapses were compensated well by the furious raiders, who exposed the rival defence on a regular basis.
Their cause was helped by the Bangladesh attack, which lacked punch. Though the Bangladeshis managed to win some points, most of the times they were let off the hook by the loose Indian defence.
The Indians' attack was spearheaded by skipper Dinesh Kumar and he was well supported by Pankaj Shirsat, Ramesh Kumar, Manpreet Singh.
The defending champions managed to get the Bangladesh side all out twice in each half while their rivals failed to do so even once.
"It was good to start the campaign on a winning note. We were confident of victory but our players became a bit complacent and the defence conceded some points," India coach Balwan Singh said.
Earlier in the first match of the competition, Pakistan outplayed Japan 34-16.
