The Indian men’s handball team went down 25-32 to Bahrain in a Group D preliminary match of the Asian Games at Jakarta on Wednesday.

Deepak Ahlawat scored six times out of 10 shots while Adithya Nagaraj scored four out of six for India. Karamjeet Singh scored five out of seven times and Harender Singh four out of seven.

At the Kopki indoor stadium, India scored 11 in the first period and 14 in the second, while Bahrain had 18 and 14 in the two periods respectively. India had lost to Chinese Taipei 18-28 in their group opener.

The handball teams’ participation at the Asian Games got mired into controversy before getting the clearance. With two losses, the Indians are now at the bottom of the group and need to win their last two matches – against Bahrain and Iraq – to stand a chance of progressing to the semi-final stage.