Asian Games 2023 kabaddi: India breeze past Pakistan to make final
This was the Indian men’s kabaddi team’s seventh win over Pakistan at the Asian Games. India will play the winner of Iran vs Chinese Taipei in the final on Saturday.
The Indian men’s kabaddi team registered a dominant 61-14 win over Pakistan in the semi-final of the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China on Friday.
With this victory, India men entered their eighth final in kabaddi at the Asian Games. India missed out on a place in the final at Jakarta 2018 after losing to Iran in the semi-finals. Before that, India won all seven gold medals since kabaddi made its debut in 1990. India will play now Iran in the final on Saturday.
"We have enjoyed an upper hand against Pakistan in the last few years," India kabaddi captain Pawan Sehrawat said. "Our performance against Pakistan was a statement to Iran. We will play the same way in the final. We utilised the semi-final to prepare for our much-awaited clash against Iran."
Against Pakistan in the Asian Games 2023 kabaddi semi-finals, India did not leave anything to chance.
India suffered a minor blip at the start with the Pakistani defence getting the two tackle points early. A two-point raid from Pakistan kabaddi team’s Mazhar Iqbal reduced India to three. Nevertheless, the Indian kabaddi team regrouped quickly and subjected Pakistan to an all-out.
From 0-4 down, India soon led Pakistan 10-4 in quick time. Eight of those 10 points came through Naveen Kumar’s multi-point raids.
Pawan Sehrawat, who was stopped by the Pakistani defence on the first raid, produced a super raid to increase the gap between the two sides. Aslam Inamdar also got into the act soon.
It was one-way traffic for India from thereon. India inflicted two more all-outs and led Pakistan 30-5 at the half-time.
Sachin Tanwar and Akash Shinde replaced Pawan Sehrawat and Naveen Kumar in the second half but that did not affect India’s scoring rate.
Pakistan managed to improve their game by a notch early in the second half. Still, India proved too strong and inflicted two more all-outs on the two-time silver medallists to enter the final against Iran or Chinese Taipei on Saturday.
This was India’s seventh win against Pakistan at the Asian Games in as many matches.
Earlier in their campaign, India made it to the semi-finals unbeaten with four wins out of four matches in the group stage. Chinese Taipei came second with three wins and a loss against India.