Twice in a row Indian eves win Kabaddi Gold, beat Iranian opponents
The night before the Women’s Final Kabaddi match, India’s team coaches Neeta Moreshwar Dadwe and Edachery Bhaskaran called all the players in one of the rooms allotted to them at the athletes’ village. A temporary play field was created and players were briefed about the strategy for the Final. They were also made to undergo a short training-cum-practice match and assigned specific roles for the match the next day.
As the final part of this emergent huddle, they keenly went through the video recordings of Iran’s previous matches and analysed each and every move of their key players — how they raid and defend.
On the morning of the Final, the last warning was thrown at the Indian eves — Don’t judge your opponents by their attire as that could be a fatal mistake.
After all, it was the Iranians they had to play the next day — a team which was coming to the Final after defeating strong contenders in Bangladesh, Thailand and Japan.
Quite another matter though that their heads wrapped in hijabs and body covered with full-sleeve T-shirts and full-length track pants, the Irani women’s kabaddi team didn’t give the impression of being a fierce opponent.
The Indians outplayed the deceptive Iranians with ease despite the strong challenge posed by the visibly fitter girls to win 31-21 for their second consecutive Asian Games gold at the Songdo Global University Gymnasium here on Friday. The women’s kabaddi was included in the Asian Games in 2010.
“We had a strategy to counter every move. And I would give credit to our girls who executed the strategy to perfection and made it look so easy,” Bhaskaran said.
India were a bit slow to start with but once they hit their rhythm, the Iranians were left to wonder what they were doing wrong from the other days. India’s dominance could be judged by the fact that they earned two lonas in the match while Iran couldn’t send the entire Indian team out even once.
“India is a good team but we are also improving fast,” Iran captain Salimeh Abdollahbakhsh later said. “We could’ve done better in the Final and I thought we had a chance of upsetting India. We won the bronze last time and silver here. Hopefully, we will get the gold medal next time,” she added.
India sealed the first half with ease before bringing out their dominating self in the second half and silencing the big-mouthed Iranians, who had been continuously sledging the defending champions since qualifying for the final.
“Whenever we used to meet during the training, in the village or in the dining hall, they would say ‘gold is ours’ or ‘we will beat you’ and something like that. It was a pressure tactic, we knew. But today we showed them who is better,” Dadwe said.
like the men’s team, Indian women also won the match because of their superior skills and experience.
“Iranians were fitter than us, no doubt about that. But it’s not just about fitness. You need to have a skill set to be successful in this sport,” Bhaskaran pointed out. A woman Iranian journalist, however, questioned India’s decision to reject their request for a bilateral series ahead of the Asian Games. According to her, India were scared of Iran and they wanted to deprive them of crucial match practice.
“Kabaddi is a contact sport and there is always a risk of an injury. So, we didn’t want to have a series and put our best players at risk of getting injured. And if Iranians wanted to play with Indians, they could have come to India and played with any of the clubs,” a team official said.
