SportsKabaddi
India's kabaddi teams beat Uganda and Malaysia to stay unbeaten in Ahmedabad
Nidhi Sharma led the women to a 41-18 win and Neeraj Narwal's 13 points carried the men past Malaysia 37-23 at the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship. Both face Nigeria on Monday.
Key points
- India's women beat Uganda 41-18, with captain Nidhi Sharma scoring nine points.
- The men beat Malaysia 37-23, after leading 27-11 at half-time.
- Both Indian teams play Nigeria on Monday evening.
India’s women and men both stayed on course at the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship on Sunday evening, beating Uganda and Malaysia at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Naranpura, Ahmedabad.
The women won 41-18. Captain Nidhi Sharma was India’s top raider with nine points, with Sakshi adding eight and Anu seven. Ritu led the defence with six tackle points and Jyoti had four. India’s two all-outs settled the match, and Uganda’s best performer was Namataka Beatrice with seven points.
Narwal leads the men
The men’s game was decided in the first half. India inflicted both their all-outs before the break to lead 27-11, and won 37-23 even though Malaysia took the second half 12-10.
Neeraj Narwal was the standout with 13 raid points, four of them bonus points. Bharat added six, Aditya Shinde five and Naveen Kumar three. Deepak S led the tackles with two. For Malaysia, Isaac Alton and Leong Suresh Kim Seng scored six raid points each.
India’s men had earlier beaten England and Uganda, and the women Malaysia and Singapore.
What comes next
Both Indian teams play Nigeria on Monday, the women at 6:45 pm IST and the men at 8:30 pm IST. The championship, which runs from 23 to 31 October, has men’s and women’s divisions with teams from across the Commonwealth, among them England, Scotland, Australia, Kenya and Sri Lanka. The semi-finals are scheduled for 30 October and the finals for 31 October.