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Incheon, The Indian men’s kabaddi team clinched its seventh successivegold medal at the Asian Games after coming from behind to beat a spirited Iran 27-25 in the summit clash in Incheon, South Korea on Friday.
The Indian team, which has been winning gold ever since the sport was introduced on the Asiad roster in 1990, was given a massive scare by Iran, who had finished runners-up in the 2010 edition as well.
The Iranians took a massive 10-point lead in the first 20 minutes before the Indians got their act together to nullify the deficit and edge past in the closing few minutes of the match.
In fact, the Indians managed to take a lead only in the 37th minute of the match.
Earlier in the day, the Indian women’s team beat Iran 31-21 for its second successive kabaddi gold medal at the Asian Games.
India had won the top prize in Guangzhou, China four years ago – the first time women’s kabaddi was introduced at the Asiad.
India didn’t have it easy and were made to work hard for the win by the Iranians, their only real competition in the tournament.
A neck-and-neck start saw both teams defend extremely well. But the Indian defence came out on top to exact 13 outs, including two ‘lona’ points, that gave them a 15-11 lead after the first half.
Iran, in contrast, had just eight outs and three bonus points. They failed to get even a single ‘lona’ point.
India’s supremacy started to show in the second half as they slowly started increasing the gap.
It was again the Indian defenders who stole the show and registered 14 outs and two more ‘lona’ points as Iran failed to make an improvement to their first half effort and had to settle for the silver.
HT
