India brushed aside their day one blues to crush Australia 54-20 in their second match in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. The win would have pleased coach Balwant Singh amidst talks about complacency creeping into the Indian squad.
Matchday two of the Kabaddi World Cup saw Australia play their first game of the tournament. They were up against a wounded Indian side post their shock loss to South Korea on the opening day.
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Coach Balwant Singh made two changes to the Indian squad – Jasvir Singh and Rahul Chaudhari who were poor in the first game were replaced by Pardeep Narwal and Deepak Niwas Hooda. The visitors began proceedings and their captain Campbell Brown was tackled in less than five seconds.
After three minutes of the match, Australia were down to three men courtesy some aggressive defending by the Indians. The men in green and yellow looked pedestrian in their approach. Sandeep Narwal then reduced them to one man.
Within seconds, the men from Down Under suffered their first all out as India took a mammoth 10-0 lead. But, captain Anup Kumar displayed no emotions whatsoever. As the game progressed, it looked very likely that things could get rather one-sided in favour of the host nation.
The Indian defenders found it too easy against their opposition raiders. The Australian attackers were static and displayed poor feet movement. The result? They suffered another all out after the ten-minute mark. India were now leading 20-2 without breaking a sweat.
To make matters worse, the Australians kept gifting India regular bonus points and made no attempt to stop the onslaught. Rahul Chaudhari, seated on the bench, seemed amused by what was transpiring on the mat. The visitors finished the first half with zero tackle points.
HT: India 32 - Australia 7
With just one man on the mat, Australia once again suffered an early all out within seconds of the second half. Deepak Hooda then pulled off an immaculate raid to take out two players as India raced to a 37-8 lead.
The Indians began to slow down the game considerably. Their raiders seemed content playing on the third raid. The visitors finally managed to hit double digits as Campbell Brown took out Manjeet Chhillar.
Rahul Chaudhari and Surender Nada finally entered the match with eleven minutes’ left on the clock. The former went into his first raid and the crowd erupted with excitement. He picked up two points from it as India led 41-13 with under nine minutes’ left.
Ajay Thakur was in his zone picking up points regularly. He was rapid and agile on the mat, displaying no complacency whatsoever. With three minutes to go, India hit the 50-point mark, asserting their dominance over the Australians.
Anup Kumar’s men weren’t tested even a little, and they got the job done on the night in front of a capacity crowd at Ahmedabad. Australia finished the game, executing the only super raid of the match but they astonishingly ended up with zero tackle points.
FT: India 54 - Australia 20
