Palembang: India opened its account in the 18th Asian Games with a bronze medal after Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar cracked under pressure to finish third in the rifle mixed-team shooting event here on Sunday.

The Indians aggregated 429.9 after 42 shots in the 48-shot final and were in second spot for major part of the 48-shot finals before China overtook them to take the silver.

The strong Chinese pairing of Ruozhu Zhao and Haoran Yang ended with a score of 492.5. Chinese Taipei's Yingshin Lin and Shaochuan Lu claimed the gold, scoring 494.1.

Korea and Mongolia finished fourth and fifth respectively in the event held for the first time at the Games.

It was a maiden Asian Games medal for Chandela, who will be aiming for a better colour medal in the 10m air rifle. Chandela is also a multiple time World Cup winner and had bagged gold at 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

World Cup bronze medallist Kumar, who is mentored by the great Abhinav Bindra, had won a men's 10m rifle team bronze at last the edition at Incheon.

Chandela, having won the first Games medal for the country, was satisfied with her performance.

"Our best finish together was fourth at the World Cup and we have improved on that. My first Asian Games medal and my first medal for India here... I am really happy about that, but my focus is on main event (10m rifle) on Monday ," Chandela said.

Asked about slipping to third from second in the elimination stage, Chandela added: "This happens in shooting. I think we shot alright."

Kumar said, "This bronze has come only because of Apurvi. The final was a disappointment after a decent qualification. We didn't get enough time to train together."

There was disappointment in store for pistol mixed team of teen sensation Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma, who failed to qualify for the finals after being tied with Kazakhstan. Both teams were tied at 759 points after 80 shots but the Kazakh sealed the fifth and final qualifying spot with more inners 10s than India (25 to India's 14).

In tennis, seventh seeds Karman Kaur Thandi and Divij Sharan of India defeated Filipino pairing of Marian Jane Capadocia and Alberto Jr Lim in a testing mixed doubles opener. Playing together for the first time, Thandi and Sharan eked out a 6-4, 6-4 win in a round of 32 match lasting 81 minutes at the Jakabaring Tennis Center.

Like Thandi and Sharan, the other Indians in the five categories too had a first round bye but they will be on court on Monday.

The Indian kabaddi contingent made an impressive start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games with the women's team mauling Japan and the men's side beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The Indian men's and women's teams had clinched the gold medal in the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea and both the sides dished out brilliant performances to make a winning start on Sunday.

The men's team outclassed Sri Lanka 44-28 in the second Group A match after opening its campaign with a 50-21 win over Bangladesh early in the day. In another lop-sided encounter, the women's team pulled off a dominating 43-12 win over Japan in its Group A opener here. PTI