India’s campaign to regain the Women’s kabaddi Gold in the Asian Games got off to a tentative start as they failed to hold on to the seven points lead and were held to a 34-34 tie by Chinese Taipei at Hangzhou on Monday

It was the first-ever tie for the Indian kabaddi team — both men and women — at the Asian Games. India women, meanwhile, have not registered a victory in two straight matches at the continental tournament, having lost their previous match, the final at Jakarta 2018.

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“Our team will fight and our team will win,” India team manager Tejaswini Bai said. “Today we were a little bit nervous, but from now on we will be more relaxed and we will win. I believe and I hope we will win gold.”

Pooja Hathwala starred for the two-time champions in women’s kabaddi and inflicted a crucial all-out in the first half but a stunning comeback from 2018 bronze medalists Chinese Taipei in the second half ended the Group A match in a tie.

Chinese Taipei, who beat eventual champions Iran in the group stage at Jakarta 2018, focused on stealing the bonus points early in the first five minutes while India went in with a more cautious approach.

Chinese Taipei’s strategy worked with Hsiu-Chen Feng at the helm in the first 10 minutes as India trailed for most of the first half.

However, Pooja Hathwala again inflicted an all-out on Chinese Taipei, with a five-point super raid that included three raid points, to help India go into the break with a two-point lead at 17-15.

India seemed to be running away with the contest on the back of quick raid points in the first five minutes of the second half. The defence tackled Hsiu-Chen Feng to dent Chinese Taipei’s challenge further and build a seven-point lead at 27-20.

Chinese Taipei mounted a comeback and revived their star raider soon. They produced multi-point raids and inflicted an all-out on India to claw their way back into the game. From trailing by seven points, Chinese Taipei led India 32-30 in the dying moments.

With all players back on the mat after the all out, India wrestled back control of the match and led by a point with less than 10 seconds to go for the final whistle. A bonus point from Chinese Taipei on the final raid ended the match in a tie.

Next, India will take on Korea in their second match on Tuesday and play Thailand in their final group match on Wednesday. The top two teams from the group will qualify for the semi-finals on Friday.