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Kabaddi World Cup: India bounce back from loss in opener, crush Australia
India bounced back from losing their opener in style, crushing Australia 54-20 to record their first win of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
India bounced back from losing their opener in style, crushing Australia 54-20 to record their first win of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
After losing to Korea on Friday, India needed to make a statement and they did so in an emphatic manner. Against the Aussies, India benched Rahul Chaudhari and Jasvir Singh, starting with Pardeep Narwal and Sandeep Narwal in their place.
The Indian substitutes played a key role in the victory, contributing 20 points. Ajay Thakur was the hosts’ top scorer, all of his seven points scored after coming on as a substitute.
The Indian defence began strongly as they sent two Australian players on the bench and raced into a 3-0 lead after two minutes.
Pardeep scored with his first raid in fourth minute as India led 6-0. An All-Out (when a team loses all seven players on court, giving the enforcing team an additional two points before all seven return from the bench) inflicted by India in the fifth minute yielded a commanding 10-0 lead.
Australia scored their first point as captain Campbell Brown got a bonus in the sixth minute. Deepak Niwas Hooda scored with a raid as India led 13-1 after seven minutes.
India came out all guns blazing as they inflicted another All-Out in the 11th minute to lead 20-2.
Such was India’s dominance that all Australia could score were bonus points in the first half.
Pardeep Narwal scored five raid points while Manjeet Chhillar got a high five for India. Kuldeep Singh scored three points for Australia in the first half.
India were well on top at the end of first half and led 32-7 at the break.
The second half began with India inflicting an All-Out in the 21st minute to lead 35-7.
Thomas Sharp scored the first touch point of the match for Australia in the 22nd minute. Australia were still looking for their first tackle point as India led 38-9 after 26 minutes.
Rahul Chaudhari came on in the 29th minute and immediately scored with his raid as India led 41-12 after 30 minutes.
Australia’s defence had a nightmare and failed to score a single point throughout the match.
Rahul scored two points with a raid in the 34th minute as India took extended their lead to 45-14.
A fourth All-Out was inflicted by India in the 36th minute to lead 49-15.
Brown scored five points for Australia while Kuldeep Singh scored Australia’s first super raid in the dying seconds of the match but India had far too much in their locker and won 54-20.
India will next play Bangladesh on Tuesday whereas Australia will lock horns with England on Monday.
