Kabaddi World Cup: India inflicts record breaking defeat on Argentina; Korea, Iran also continue winning streak

Ahmedabad: India, Iran and Korea continued their winning streak today in the Kabaddi World Cup being played here.

While in the two group A matches India easily trounced Argentina 74-20, the biggest score by the hosts and defending champion in this edition of the world cup and Korea continued its dream performance with fourth consecutive win by beating Australia 63-25.
In the only Group B match last time runners up faced a tough opposition from Japan and somehow managed to win the match with a thin margin of 38-34.

Korea which now tops the points tally of Group A with 20 points from four wins in all the four matches it has played so far and India on the second place with 16 points with 3 wins and one loss are almost certain to make it to semifinals. England is on second place with 10 points from 3 matches and still stand a chance to Semis and its match with India on October 18 will be very crucial.

Iran with 20 points from four wins in four matches will also play Semi final from its group.

The interesting point is that Iran and India have so far faced each other in both the earlier editions of world cup but this time it seems at this juncture that it is most likely that the two teams will have to play against one another in one of the semifinals.

Leaving behind the shocking defeat by Korea in the opener, India continued its form and played marvelously against Argentina. At half time they were ahead 36-13 and before a jubilant home crowd it ended up with 74-20, the biggest win for the team this world cup.

On the other hand Iran faced tough competition from Japan in its mathc but had last laugh in a close and fighting game by showcasing their high end skills in Kabaddi with the Final Score of 38 – 34.
Republic of Korea continued their winning streak by beating Australia easily in their match in the tournament being played at The Arena by TransStadia here by 63 – 25.

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.
India will take on England in 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.

Detailed report of India-Argentina encounter-

India cruised to a comfortable win over Argentina as their raiders flexed their muscle to notch a record 54 point margin win. The hosts thumped Argentina to score a world record margin win as they won 74-20.India hardly broke a sweat as Rahul Chaudhari and Ajay Thakur combined to score 25 raid points between them. Manjeet Chhillar and Surender attained a high five each to score 11 points to lead India’s charge.
India created a record of most tackles in a match in the World Cup. It made a swift start and led 3-0 after three minutes. Nahuel Villamayor opened Argentina’s account in the second minute to trail 1-3. Pardeep Narwal and Sandeep Narwal scored a point apiece as India led 6-1 after three minutes. Ajay Thakur made a successful raid in the fifth minute as India led 9-3. India inflicted an all out in the sixth minute to lead 12-3.

Ajay Thakur led the scoring charts for India in the first half and scored 11 points. Surjeet was a rock at the back for India and achieved a high five in the first half.
India inflicted another all out in the 19 th minute to lead 35-11. Argentina were no match for India and struggled to cope with India’s superiority in all departments.
Pardeep Narwal scored five points for India in the first half as India led 36-13 at the break. Ajay Thakur attained a super ten in the 22 nd minute as India led 38-13. India didn’t relent at any point in the second half as hey led 41-13 after 24 minutes. An all out was inflicted by India in the 25 th minute to lead 45-13. Rahul came on as a substitute on the 26 th minute to score his first point as India led 47-15. Rahul Chaudhari scored two more points in the 28 th minute to give India 50-15
lead. Nahuel Villamayor scored seven points for Argentina as they trailed 15-53 in the 30 th minute. India inflicted another all out in the 30 th minute to lead 58-15
as Argentina were completely outplayed.

With less than four minutes to go India inflicted another all out to lead 68-17. Rahul Chaudhari scored 10 points in the second half alone as Argentina struggled to cope with him. India led 73-19 as Kiran Parmar scored with a two- point raid in the 40 th minute. India put up a brilliant team show as they beat Argentina to record the biggest ever margin in the history of World Cup.

DeshGujarat