Newcomer Afghanistan went into the Asiad basketball tournament in style as it held off Hong Kong, China 65-57 here Thursday afternoon for an opening victory at the 2006 Doha Asian Games basketball preliminaries.

"It's really a big win for us," said Afghanistan head coach Zabi Sublt. "We are so proud of ourselves."

"After long-time war, we want to help reintroduce Afghanistan to the world," Sublt added.

Yosuof Etemadi and Nafi Mashriqi had 16 points apiece to help the Afghani team clinch the well-deserved victory in its debut at the Asian Games.

"I am so excited with our players' performance, they did a very good job," Sublt said. "I believe they will have great future."

Wong Chun-wai nailed a three-pointer with 32.8 seconds to go, which pulled Hong Kong, China within 59-57, but Mashriqi answered with a fast-break basket six seconds later to make it 61-57.

Then Abdullah Karimi added two from the line 8.9 seconds from the end to seal the victory for Afghanistan. Karimi finished with nine points.

Afghanistan will play its second and last match in the preliminary Group C on Friday.

"Of course we want to win the group and a berth to the next stage, we have to take one game at a time," Sublt said.

Earlier on Thursday, India failed to turn up for its opening match at the Basketball Indoor Hall and the referee awarded the match to opponent Bahrain, 20-0.

According to reports from Indian media, Indian sports ministry has drastically cut down its Asian Games contingent, pruning the squad to 387 members from the original 589 proposed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). As a result, basketball, football, handball, sepak takraw, triathlon, ten-pin bowling, rugby sevens and fencing teams were removed.

In Thursday's other action, The United Arab Emirates beat Kuwait 80-72 and Uzbekistan trounced Mongolia 102-66.