Buoyed by their fighting display in making it to the second round, India showed lot of cohesion and even came close to scoring through mercurial striker Bhaichung Bhutia before losing steam in the second session to be hopelessly down 0-3 with only seven minutes left.

But captain IM Vijayan (83rd) and Tushar Rakshit (87th) etched their names in the Asian Games books by stunning their opponents with goals in the space of four minutes at the fag end as India, who were 0-1 behind at half-time, came away with their heads held high despite the lossNejelev Dmitry gave Turkmenistan the lead in the 39th minute lead off a defence lapse, Agaev Muslim (49th) made it 2-0.

The lanky Igor Kislov headed in the third from close range in the74th, pointing to a rout.

But Vijayan, who chested and slammed home a Chapman diagonal cross from right, and Rakshit, who pulled wide of goalkeeper Korobko after Bhutia had sped into the box and laid the ball on to him.

The goals gave much for the Indian squad to feel proud about.India take on defending champions Uzbekistan in their second league match on December 9.

India had lost two warm-up matches against the Uzbeks at home recently.The other team in the group is North Korea wh o India take on December 11.