Ahmedabad: India notched up their third consecutive Kabaddi World Cup victory, after completing an amazing 38-29 comeback win over fellow powerhouse Iran, in the final, at the Transstadia, in Ahmedabad, on Saturday.
It was a game of two halves, as the two traditional Kabaddi powerhouses went head to head against each other.
Although India got the lead early on, with successful raids from Sandeep Narwal and Ajay Thakur, the Iranians came out with a successful defensive plan, to knock the hosts off their comfort zone.
However, Pradeep Narwal, who had scored 14 points against Thailand in the semifinals on Friday, was off form. Iran soon capitalised on this and raced into the lead after a couple of failed raid attempts by India.
This gave Iran the momentum they wanted, as they raced ahead into a 12-16 lead, inflicting the first All Out of the night, for India.
By half time, the visitors increased their lead to five points, with an 18-13 lead.
However, India, who have not had to break much sweat since losing their first match of the tournament against South Korea, were not about to give in just yet.
Whatever coach Balwan Singh told them at half time seemed to have worked perfectly, as India came out with a new vigour at the restart.
While Pradeep Narwal’s performance left much to be desired, raider Ajay Thakur stepped up to the plate, to get India back into the game. Three consecutive successful raids by Ajay in the second half put India in the lead (21-20) for the first time in the second half.
The momentum had clearly swung India’s way, and the hosts were not going to let this opportunity go easily. Soon, it was India’s turn to inflict an All Out upon Iran, as the hosts raced into a 24-21 lead.
Ajay was the key man for India on the night, as he notched-up 10 raid points, by getting a touch on Iran danger man and captain Meraj Sheykh. This was the fifth consecutive match in which Ajay had notched-up 10 raid points.
Fittingly, it was Ajay, who enforced Iran’s second All Out, after completing a brilliant two-point raid.
By then however, India were firmly in control of the match, increasing the gap between them and Iran to nine points. Nitin Tomar completed the win, with yet another successful raid, managing to get a touch on Sheykh.
India remained the undisputed champions of International Kabaddi, with their third World Cup final win over Iran in as many World Cups. While the 2016 final was a lot closer than the previous encounter between the two sides, it will be interesting to see if Iran can build on this good performance to finally topple the sub-continental giants in this sport.
