The knockout blow for the defending champions came in the 87th minute thanks to a controversial penalty that paved the way for Pakistan to advance into the last four along with India from Group A.

Essa delighted the home crowd converting from the spot with Bangladesh almost sensing an all-important point to qualify for the semifinals.

The defeat continued Bangla-desh's miserable run in Pakistan, where they also suffered a defeat in the final against the home team in 1989 SAF Games.

The early exit of the football team spoiled the celebrations of a silver in swimming earlier on the day and broke the sequence of two gold winning performances of Asif Hossain Khan and Sharmin Akhter in the 10m air-rifle.

Karar Samedul, still haunted by an elusive gold, helped the relay team to capture the silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay behind India, who are dominating the Pakistan Sports Complex Swi-mming Pool.

Samedul, Rubel, Jewel and Kazi Monirul combined to clock 4 minutes 05.29 seconds, 1.44 seconds behind the gold winning Indian team.

The other medal, a bronze, came in the 62kg category in weightlifting when Haminul Islam finished with a total lift of 255kg at the Islamabad Community Centre.

But apart from the two successes, it was a rather dry day for Bangladesh in all disciplines.

The volleyball team tasted their first defeat when fancied India won 3-0 at Liaquat Gymnasium. The 25-13, 25-14, 25-9 victory confirmed India's place at the top of the group.

Bangladesh, who defeated the Maldives and Afghanistan in their previous group matches, finished second and play in the semifinal against the winners of the other group today.

It was the same story in table tennis when the paddles lost 3-0 to Pakistan in the men's team event at the Hamidi Hall of the Pakistan Sports Complex where a veteran Mosaddequl Haq could only stretch his match

against Asim Qureshi into a fourth set.

There was also no luck for the kabadi team, who were crashed by favourites India 45-25. India led at the halfway mark by 32-6.

Meanwhile, India overtook Pakistan on the fourth day in the overall standings with 25 gold medals. Pakistan ranked second with 13 golds.

Bangladesh remained a distant third with two gold medals while Sri Lanka and Nepal won one gold medal each. Afghanistan has won one silver and 10 bronze medals while Bhutan and the Maldives have also yet to strike gold.

Athletics, the Games centre of attraction, will start from today.