Kabaddi World Cup: Pakistan, India march into semis

LAHORE: Pakistan and India comfortably won their last pool matches in the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 — against Azerbaijan and England respectively — at the Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi Stadium in Gujrat on Friday.

Pakistan won the toss and showed their class against rookies Azerbaijan, winning 40-30. India outplayed England 44-26 without much trouble.

Friday saw the conclusion of the pool matches. Pakistan stayed unbeaten in the group stage and finished with six points to top their four-team Pool B. Australia followed with four points.

India also won all their matches in the five-team Pool A, claiming eight points. Iran with three wins and one defeat ended up in second place.

Both the semi-finals will be played on Saturday (today) with India taking on Australia at 6:00pm and Pakistan locking horns with Iran at 7:30pm at Lahore’s Punjab Stadium.

Raiders Irfan Mana, Akmal Shahzad Dogar, Kalee­m­­ullah Jatt and Malik Binyameen scored valuable points for Pakistan while Pervaiz and Subhan demonstrated good game for Azerbaijan.

In the second match of the day, England offered some resistance but defending champions India defied their moves skillfully in both raiding and stopping departments.

India’s Arsh Jhola, Deepak Kashi and Ravi Kumar entertained the audience with wonderful raids while England’s Sukha Lakhpuria, Rana Akmal, Ali and Sajid won huge appreciation from a large gathering.

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi was the chief guest on Friday. Pakistan Kabaddi Federation President Chaudhry Shafay Hussain, Secretary Rana Sarwar and other officials were also present on the occasion.

Talking to media persons, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi welcomed all the participating teams and kabaddi lovers at the Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi Stadium. “Gujrat has immense sports talent and the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 matches at the Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi Stadium will play a major role in promoting kabaddi in Gujrat,” he said.

He said it was a great honour for Gujrat to host Kabaddi World Cup matches involving top teams like India, Pakistan and England. “We will also invite international teams of other games in Gujrat in future.”

Points table

Tabulated under as teams, played, won, lost, points:

Pool A

India 4 4 - 8

Iran 4 3 1 6

Germany 4 2 2 4

England 4 1 3 2

Sierra Leone 4 - 4 0

Pool B

Pakistan 3 3 - 6

Australia 3 2 1 4

Canada 3 1 2 2

Azerbaijan 3 - 3 0