After losing their 15th Asian Games opener to India, Bangladesh failed to hold on to a brilliant first-half performance and a 24-17 lead as Pakistan snatched a come-back-from-behind 42-35 win at the Aspire Hall.

Bangladesh also lost to Pakistan to settle for the South Asian Games bronze medal in Colombo last August. Both the teams earned four lonas.

Bangladesh will play Iran today while favourites India lock horns with Pakistan. The top two finishers from the 5-team league will meet for the gold medal match.

Meanwhile, South Asian Games gold medallist swimmer Shahjahan Ali Rony found life tough in a faster lane.

The 50m breaststroke gold winner in Colombo last August, Rony finished seventh among eight competitors in Heat 3 in his pet event yesterday.

His timing at the Hamad Aquatic Centre was 31.18s, poorer than his SA Games performance of 30.43s and 2.42s behind Japanese swimmer Hiromasa Sahimoto who finished ahead with 28.76s.

Jewel Ahmed did better in Heat 1, finishing third in 100m butterfly. Overall 27th among 32, Jewel took 1.00:89s, behind Syrian swimmer Ramy Anis (58.31s) and Pakistan's Nasir Ali (1.00:22s).

Performance in chess, however, was bright although there were ups and downs in the three rounds of men's rapid chess. Bangladeshi International Master Enamul Hossain Rajib had four points after six rounds while Grandmaster Reefat Bin Sattar trailed his junior one point behind.

Reefat drew with Indian number three GM Pentala Harikrishna while Rajib lost to Kazakhstan GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev in the fourth round. In the fifth round, Rajib beat Turkmenistan's Mesgen Amanov but Reefat went down to Vietnam's GM Anh Dung Nguyen. In the day's final round, Rajib held Nguyen while Reefat drew with Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimidzhanov.

Shamima Akhter Liza won both her fourth and fifth round ties, upsetting UAE WIM Saleh Noura and Jordan's WIM Jamaliah Natalie, to take her collection to 3.5 points with the wins. She lost her way in the sixth round, losing to Irene Sukandar, WFM of Indonesia.

Bangladeshi judoka Pushpa Mamtaj lost to Turkmenistan's Salaeva Nakaeva in the women's 70kg category.

It was no surprise that the Bangladesh footballers bowed out of contention when they crashed 5-1 to Bahrain in their second Group B match late night on Saturday at the Al-Arabi Football Stadium.

Bahrain and South Korea, who blanked Vietnam 2-0 earlier on the same day, both reached the last eight from the group with six points each.

For table-toppers Bahrain, two-goal Ismaeel Abdullatif opened the scoring after 27 minutes while Mohamed Husain, who also notched a brace, doubled the lead from a 39th minute penalty.

Trailing 2-0 in the first half, Bangladesh conceded three goals inside eight minutes, the same pair scoring in the 72 and 75 minutes before Mohamed Adnan adding the fifth in the 80th.

Bangladesh, who lost 3-0 to Korea in their opener, claimed a late consolation goal for Bangladesh through substitute Zahid Hossain two minutes from time. Bangladesh will play Vietnam tomorrow in the last match.

The hockey team will begin their campaign against India today.