Indian men beat arch rivals Pakistan 9-7 in a closely fought thrilling summit clash, while their women counterparts hardly broke a sweat in defending their gold medal.
Defending champions India on Monday maintained their supremacy in kabaddi by clinching gold in both men's and women's events at the 12th South Asian Games, in Guwahati.
Indian men beat arch rivals Pakistan 9-7 in a closely fought thrilling summit clash, while their women counterparts hardly broke a sweat in defending their gold medal which they had won in the previous edition by thrashing Bangladesh 36-12 in the final. It was a repeat of the 2010 summit clash in both the finals and Pakistan and Bangladesh had to be content with a silver in men's and women's events for second time in a row.
It was tough fight in the men's final at the R G Baruah Sports Complex with both sides refusing to give in to their opponents.
Both sides were locked 5-5 at the end of the first half before India showed in the second half why they are the reigning Asian Games champions. As usual, captain Anup Kumar played a big role in the win as he gave India a lead of 6-5 just as the second half began. Another raider Rohit Kumar stretched the home side's lead to 7-5 by dismissing a Pakistani player before Anup yet again got his man by his outstretched hands to give India a 8-5 lead.
With time ticking away and the capacity crowd chanting 'India, India' and 'Jitega India', Pakistan found themselves in a desparate situation to get points. But instead, another Pakistani player did not survive when he went deep into the Indian territoty. At 9-5, the match was definitely in India's favour but Pakistan somehow got two points. But by then it was too late in the day as just over a minute was left in the match and the experienced Indians played out the remaining time to win the summit clash 9-7 and notch up a satisfying win over Pakistan.
The Indian players and team management broke into a wild celebration as they ran a lap of honour by holding the tri- colour even as the home supporters joined the party with rapturous celebrations at the stands. None of the two sides could get 'lonas (entire opposition team is out)'. India won eighth 'outs' and one bonus point while Pakistan had six 'outs' and one bonus. The women's summit clash, though, was not up to the level which was witnessed in the men's final as the Indians simply outplayed Bangladesh.
The Indian women, also defending their gold they had won in 2010, were simply the far better side with overwhelming technical superiority and the match was a one-sided affair. The Bangladesh could not match the Indians in all departments of the game. For the Indians, who led 21-7 at half time, captain Tejeswani Bai led from the front as she got a lot of 'outs' as well as bonus points.
The Indian women were able to effect two 'lonas', 21 'outs' and 13 bonus points.
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