Kabaddi: India defeats Bangladesh

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Ahmedabad: In a must-win crucial encounter in Group A, Defending Champion India lived up to their reputation to beat Bangladesh 57-20 today.

          Ajay Thakur scored 10 points for India after coming on as a substitute whereas Pardeep Narwal led India’s charge in the first half and ended with eight points.

India have got their World Cup campaign firmly back on track after suffering a setback in the opening encounter against Republic of Korea. This was a stern test for India but they showed their class and brushed away a good Bangladesh side with relative ease. India’s defence put on a tremendous show as they kept the Bangladesh raiders in their pocket for most of the match.

Pardeep Narwal got the first points for India with a raid in the third minute and Sandeep Narwal followed it with a tackle to give India 2-1 lead. India led 4-2 in the sixth minute with captain Anup Kumar scoring a bonus and tackle point.

Bangladesh’s Firdaus Sheikh was in good form early in the match as he made four tackle points with score level at 4-4 after six minutes. India came strongly to score four points in a row to lead 8-4 after nine minutes with defence doing a fine job. Pardeep Narwal scored his fourth raid point in the 10 th minute as India inflicted an all out to lead 13-4.

Bangladesh got their first raid point in the 12 th minute as they trailed 5-14. Pardeep Narwal was in superb form in the first half and scored his seventh raid point to give India 17-6 lead. Ajay Thakur came on as a substitute to score five points as India led 21-8 after 17 minutes. India inflicted the second all out in the 18 th minute to take a commanding 24-9 lead. India led 27-10 at the end of the first half as the attack and
defence worked well in tandem to put on a solid performance.

Both teams exchanged a raid point each at the start of the second half as India led 28-11. India led 34-13 in the 24 th minute as Ajay Thakur continued to score raid points at will. India used the opportunity to test their bench strength in the second half and got Surender Nada and Nitin Tomar. A third all out was inflicted by India in the 29 th minute to take an unassailable 39-15 lead.

With less than five minutes remaining, India led 48-18 as Surender Nada sent Bangaldesh raiders to the bench with ease and scored four tackle points. India inflicted the fourth all out in 37 th minute to lead 52-18. Surender Nada attained a
high five in the dying seconds as India recorded a comfortable 57-20
 
     Earlier in the first match of Pool B today last time runners up Iran had to face unexpected fight from Kenya but the Persian team managed to win by a close margin of 32-28 in the thrilling match.

              By winning the match today India now leads the points tally in Pool A with 11 points from two wins and an embarrassing defeat by South Korean team in the opening encounter. It had won its second match against Australia. Korea with two wins and 10 points is on the second place after India in its pool. Bangladesh, which stood third in both the earlier editions of the world cup will need to beat Korea on Thursday to keep their semi finals hopes alive.

             The third edition of Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad organised by International Kabaddi Federation is seeing a participation of 12 teams – India, Iran, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Kenya, England, USA, Thailand, Poland, and Argentina – battling it out for the world title.
      India,  which  is also 7 times Asian Games winner is in pool A with South Korea, Australia, England, Bangladesh and Argentina While Iran with Thailand, Japan, the USA, Poland and Kenya is in Pool B.
      India was the winner of both the earlier editions of Kabaddi world cups while Iran was runners up on each occasion.
       Its next match will be against Argentina on October 15 while it will take on England its final league encounter on October 18.
        The two semifinals will be played on October 21 while the final on the next day ie October 22.
        In the sole Group A match tomorrow Argentina will take on Australia.