India maintained its unbeaten run with a 63-26 win over Thailand in the Men’s Kabaddi Competition, while the Women’s team assured itself a medal at the Asian Games after overwhelming Thailand 54-22 at the Xiaoshan Guali Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday.
In the men’s section, the margin of 37 points helped India, led by Pawan Sehrawat, to stay on top of Group A points table, for now. Chinese Taipei also have two wins out of two but have a points difference of +37 compared to India’s +74.
Raiders Naveen Kumar and Arjun Deshwal helped the side to make a brisk start with quick raids in the opening minutes. India took no time to inflict an all-out on Thailand and raced to an 11-2 lead in the opening five minutes.
Thailand’s Pramot Saising responded with a super raid to make it 15-5. Nevertheless, India soon revived their star raider Naveen Kumar and later Parvesh Bhainswal and Sunil Kumar to resume their charge.
India inflicted three all-outs on their rivals in the first half and led 37-9 before slowing down in the second half. After the break, Aslam Inamdar, Akash Shinde and Nitin Rawal came to the forefront.
Aslam and Akash helped the team increase their lead from 28 points at the half-time to 37 at the final whistle. Apart from scoring through raids, India also focused on winning bonus points against Thailand.
India will play Chinese Taipei and Japan for the top spot in Group A on Thursday.
Earlier Indian Women assured itself a medal after defeating 54-22 .The win helped the champions in 2010 and 2014 and runners-up in 2018, to finish Group A with five points from three matches and seal their place in the semi-finals.
The losing semi-finalists will be awarded bronze medals . Defending champions Iran topped Group B with Nepal as the runners-up.
Against Thailand, Pushpa Rana, Nidhi Sharma and Pooja Hathwala got the team off to a good start with incisive raids. The defence, meanwhile, had their hands full with Thai raiders and denied easy bonus points.
India inflicted three all-outs on the rivals in the first half and led 32-9. Thailand raised their game after the break and tested the defence. Saowapa Chuekhaow in particular, troubled the Indian defence and also got a super raid.
Indian defenders soon pulled up their socks and slowed down the scoring from Thailand. On the other hand, the raiders, led by Nidhi Sharma, continued to steal points with ease to win the kabaddi match by a margin of 32 points.
Earlier, the Indian women were held by Chinese Taipei for a tie in the opening game but brought its campaign back on track after a 56-23 win over Korea in the second match on Tuesday.