Indian women make winning start in Asiad kabaddi

India swamped Bangladesh 34-20 in their opening encounter as women's kabaddi made its Asian Games debut in Guangzhou on Monday.

Women's kabaddi has made its debut here, 20 years after the South Asian sport was included – but only with the men's competition – in the Beijing Games.

The Indian squad, led by Tejeswini Bai, was the dominant outfit in both raiding and defending against their South Asian neighbours but Bangladesh too had their moments.

The Indians began in storming fashion by raiding their rival area with Tejeswani, Smita Kumar, Pooja Sharma Deepika Joseph in full flight and secured two Lonas by dismissing all the rival players off the court to earn two extra points.

"Our girls were very fast and agile. Our raiders were good. Everybody played well," said team's coach Vijay Kumar, adding all the team members wanted to grab the gold medal as the men had done in 1990.

"They want to start with gold, just as the men did it in 1990 and have not looked back after that," he said.

Bangladesh, who were overwhelmed in the first half, came back well in the second with good efforts put in by Sharmin Rima, Dolly Shafaly, Hena and Rupali Akhtar.