Pakistan routs Australia to reach SF of World Kabaddi Cup

LAHORE (APP): As expected, Pakistan comparatively outplayed inexperienced Australian kabaddi team by 62-25 in a Pool ‘B’ match and booked a place in the semifinal on the 5th day of Kabaddi World Cup 2020 at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad on Thursday.

According to the information made available here, in Pool ‘A’, India grabbed the top spot by defeating Iran by 50-39 and confirmed their place in the last four stages of Kabaddi World Cup. Iran and Australia are the other two teams who reached the semifinals from Pool A and B, respectively.

Pakistan chose to raid first after winning the toss against Australia. Pakistan raiders skipper Irfan Mana, Lala Obaidullah, Kaleemullah Jatt, Bilal Mohsin Dhillon were in best form and scored valuable points against Australia. On the other hand, Pakistan stoppers Musharraf Janjua, Shani Basra and Zafar Iqbal and their teammates exhibited similar form during the comfortable victory of their team.

Pakistan captain Irfan Mana and Bilal Mohsin Dhillon shared the award of best raider whereas Shani Basra was named as top stopper of Kabaddi World Cup match against Australia. Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports Malik Umer Farooq and Director General Sports Punjab Adnan Arshad Aulakh, President Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) Ch Shafay Hussain distributed prizes among the top performers.

Secretary PKF Rana Sarwar, Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad Muhammad Ali and CPO Muhammad Sohail Ch were also present on this occasion. The fifth day action was witnessed by a large number of kabaddi lovers.

Earlier, after winning the toss, defending champions India maintained their supremacy against strong Iran team winning a tense clash by 50-39. Players from both the sides exhibited top class kabaddi during the tough contest. In the first half, Iranian players managed to carry their points parallel to India at 26-23, however, India widened the points gap in the second half and ultimately won the mach by 50-39.

India’s Deepak Kashi, Navjot Singh Jota, Vinay Khatri and Arsh Jhola remained prominent performers for the victorious team while Mesal Qamri, Mustafa Saadqi and Ameer Muhammadi accumulated valuable points for their team. India’s Vinay Khatri and Arsh Jhola were adjudged best raider and stopper respectively against Iran.

Players of both the teams competed without shirts in the second half following a controversy. The jury ordered the players to play match without shirts on the request of Iranian players.

Though Sierra Leone won the toss against Germany, they lost their match badly by 43-14. Strong German team dominated their opponents in both raiding and stopping departments throughout the match. Germany’s Manpreet Singh and Kuldeep Singh were the best raider and best stopper of this one-sided match.

Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports Malik Umer Farooq and DG Sports Punjab Adnan Arshad Aulakh distributed prizes among best players of the matches. Schedule of Feb 14 matches: Two more Kabaddi World Cup matches will be played at Zahoor Elahi Stadium in Gujrat on Feb 14, 2020.

Pakistan will face Azerbaijan in the first match at 2.30pm while the second match will be played between India and England at 3.45pm on the 6th day activity of grand kabaddi event. Kabaddi World Cup points table, to be read as pools, teams, matches played, won, lost and points.

Pool A

Teams P W L Pts

India 3 3 0 6

Iran 4 3 1 6

Germany 4 2 2 4

England 3 1 2 2

Sierra Leone 4 0 4 0

Pool B

Pakistan 2 2 0. 4

Australia 3 2 1 4

Canada 3 1 2 2

Azerbaijan 2 0 2 0.