Panvel, Navi Mumbai, Jan 26 : Mighty India will clash with Iran once more to determine who rules the kabaddi world for the next two years. India expectedly overpowered neighbours Bangladesh 48-22, while Iran ruthlessly destroyed Japan 43-14 in the two semi finals played today in the second edition of the Kabaddi World Cup currently being played at the Karnala Sports Academy, Panvel. The Indians were initially down no doubt by a couple of points; but once they got going Bangladesh had no answer what so ever to counter the wiles and guiles of their rivals. Iran whose pride had been dented by the Japanese in the Asian Games at Doha (Qatar) came out with a well planned strategy to deal with the fast moving Japanese to avoid any embarrassment. The Japanese had drawn with them in a nail biting cliff-hanger in the Asian Games. The Iranians in the absence of their injured star raider Aref Mojerdi decided to sandbank their defence to prevent the Japanese from scoring in the beginning and it proved effective. Within no time the Iranians moved up to 13-1 trapping the frustrated Japanese raiders one after the other. The 18-4 lead by Iran at the break thereafter came as a fair indication of the final outcome.

India decided to be at full strength in the beginning to establish their supremacy. Naveen Kumar, Pankaj Shirsat, their top two raiders were employed to attack the Bangladeshis. Naveen showed good technique while using his legs to get out Al-Mamun, while Pankaj went after Mohammad Abdur Rouf a couple of times successfully to dent the confidence of the Bangladeshis. Mozammal of Bangladesh kept his team in the fray by defeating the attempt of Manpreet and Vikas to return successfully back into his own territory. The next raid by Rakesh for India proved futile as he was trapped. With India having just four defenders it was a good opportunity at 15-9 for Bangladesh to come closer. But that was not to be as India captain Pankaj Shirsat and Naveen Kumar took India further at 18-9. With half time nearing Naveen jumped over a rival like a gymnast and Manpreet came up with a successful raid the holders were placed comfortably at 21-11.

India made a change after scoring their second lona immediately after the break . Gaurav Shetty from Maharashtra came in for Manpreet and he got into the act of garnering points for his side. He looked confident while scoring six points in six raids for India. Bangladesh also made a change substituting Abu Salah Musa with Razu Ahmed. The move didn’t click as Pankaj and Gaurav kept on plundering point after point. Naveen Gautam who wasn’t used much made a solid impact when he raided. He touched out three opponents and in the process got the full rival team out to score a lona for India. There after it was just going through the motions for both the teams and the match ended at 48-22 in favour of the hosts.

Iran negated the Japanese threat by singling out their premier raider Kokei Ito for some special attention and once he started falling repeatedly in the Iranian defensive dragnet the Japanese realised this was a different Iran altogether. Ramezanali the tall gangling Irani raider took the onus on him to provide his team the breakthroughs. He was responsible in scoring 9 points including a bonus in the dozen raids carried out by him. He also proved his all round capabilities by successfully trapping his opponents on a half a dozen occassions. He received splending support from Naser Roomiani Nazari. Naser egged on by the vociferous crowd executed his raids precisely. He had ten points including three bonus to his credit.

Kazuhiro Takano and Hiromi Takahashi fought a losing battle for Japan; but their contribution was inadequate to rescue the team.

Iran coach Manjeet Singh , a former Navy kabaddi player was happy with the outcome; but said it will be an uphill battle against mighty India. Manjeet who has been with the side for nine months, however, promised to put up a spirited fight in the title round. Badsha Mia, the veteran Bangladeshi player who announced his retirement from international kabaddi today was all praise for India. They are an all round side and they proved it. We have a long way to go but this competition will give us further impetus to improve the game in Bangladesh.


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