India beat England to enter Kabaddi World Cup semis
Ahmedabad, Oct 19 (IANS) India produced a scintillating performance to thrash England 69-18 in their last Group B encounter and seal their berth for the Kabaddi World Cup semi-finals at the TransStadia here.
Star raider Pardeep Narwal scored 13 points while Ajay Thakur scored 11 points as India made full use of their squad depth to notch a comfortable win and end their group campaign on a high.
The crowd at the TransStadia arena was in for a treat as the home team put on a spectacular show.
After suffering a shocking defeat in their opening match against South Korea, India bounced back in style and finished the group matches with a whopping score difference of 174.
England, on the other hand, can take a lot of heart from their performances as they finished fourth in Group B with 10 points.
On Tuesday, England made a bright start as captain Someshwar Kalia scored two points in the first minute to lead 2-1. Sandeep Narwal scored with a super raid in the third minute as India overtook the visitors 5-2.
Thakur scored with a two-point raid in the fifth minute as India extended the lead to 8-3 and reduced England to just two men.
India inflicted the first all out of the match in the sixth minute to lead 12-3. Narwal scored his first points in the seventh minute to give India 14-3 lead.
Keshav Gupta scored with a two-point read in the 10th minute as England trailed 5-17.
Sandeep Narwal was in great raiding form as he scored six points to help India inflict the second all out in the 13th minute and get a lead of 24-5.
England’s defence let them down as they failed to score a single point in the first 15 minutes.
India inflicted another all out in the 16th minute to take a commanding 33-5 lead. Such was India’s dominance that they went on a 20-0 run in eight minutes to lead 37-5 after 18 minutes.
Pardeep attained a super 10 in the first half whereas Surjeet got a high five as India inflicted the fourth all out in the 20th minute to lead 45-6 at the end of the first half.
Coming back, India brought on five substitutes in the second half, including Rahul Chaudhari, to make use of their squad.
Nitin Tomar scored two points in the 23rd minute as India led 49-7. England were still looking for their first tackle point and their star raider Tope Adewalure struggled to get raid points.
India went on to inflict another all out in the 28th minute to take their lead to 57-8 before England’s Adewalure scored two raid points consecutively to become the first man to score 50 points in the ongoing World Cup.
With less than five minutes to go, and India leading 64-14, Rahul scored his third point of the match.
India cruised in the last few minutes as Thakur attained a super 10 in the 39th minute to give India a handsome 69-18 win.