Jakarta Aug 19 (IANS) India s veteran Sushil Kumar suffered a shock defeat in the opening round to crash out of the men s 74 kg freestyle category in the wrestling competition at the 18th Asian Games here on Sunday.
Sushil seemed sluggish and off-colour right from the start during a rather lacklustre 3-5 defeat to Adam Batirov of Brunei.
Batirov will take on Abdul Ghafar Qaderi of Afghanistan in the pre-quarterfinals.
There was better news for India in the men s 65 kg freestyle division as Bajrang Punia crushed Sirojiddin Khasanov of Uzbekistan by technical superiority in his campaign opener.
Bajrang struggled in the early stages as Khasanov opened up a comfortable 3-0 lead. But the Indian staged a strong comeback by notching up six consecutive points to lead 6-3 at he break.
Bajrang completely dominated the second and final round scoring seven points within two minutes to take a 13-3 lead which saw him being adjudged the winner by technical superiority.
A wrestler is considered winner by technical superiority when he leads by 10 or more points.
Bajrang will take on Fayziev Abdulqosim of Tajikistan in the quarter-finals.
Fayziev had thrashed Jindapan Somsak of Thailand by technical superiority (12-2) in the pre-quarterfinals.
In the 57kg freestyle category Sandeep Tomar registered a 12-8 win over Rustem Nazarov of Turkmenistan to enter the second round.

--IANS ajb/mr