Men’s Kabaddi at the Asian Games: India defeats Bangladesh 55-18 in the first game

 

seven times successful India defeated Bangladesh 55-18 on Tuesday at the Xiaoshan Guali Sports Center in Hangzhou, China, to start their campaign to win back the Men’s team Kabaddi championship at the Asian Games.

From the outset, India controlled the game and forced four all-outs on Bangladesh.

An early mega raid by seasoned raider Naveen Kumar helped to establish the tone for the rest of the first half. As India forced an all-out on Bangladesh after five minutes to lead 11-1, Arjun Deshwal also cashed in with fast points.

The Bangladesh defense calmed down in the first few minutes, forcing the Indian raiders to work hard for points while the Indian defense proved to be too powerful.

With outstanding tackles, Bangladesh eliminated the skipper Pawan Sehrawat and Naveen Kumar from the match. They lacked both successful raids and bonus points, which prevented them from going on the offensive and allowed the previous champions to grow their lead by 15 points at halftime, making it 24-9.

With the addition of Sachin Tanwar and Akash Shinde, India increased the ante in the second half of the game and inflicted three all outs to widen the margin between the two teams.

Despite the fact that Sha Mohammed Shahan and skipper Mohammad Tuhin Tarafder made strong impressions, Sachin led a string of brilliant raids for Bangladesh, culminating in a spectacular raid that raised the score to 33-10.

Bangladesh was able to score by making the rare tackle. But it fell short in the face of a balanced India team that shown consistency throughout the whole encounter.

On Wednesday, India’s second game is against Thailand, and on Thursday, they face Chinese Taipei in their final group game.

The top two teams from the group will advance to Friday’s semifinals.