Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan emerged victorious from a close contest against India in the final of the Kabaddi World Cup at Punjab Stadium here on Sunday evening. The hosts won 43-41 to become kabaddi world champions for the first time. Pakistan, who had lost four World Cup finals to India, became fifth time lucky, edging out their arch-rivals in a hotly contested affair. Pakistan won the toss and decided to raid first. In the beginning, India was leading and maintained the margin of a couple of points until the first session was over. The contest between the South Asian neighbours remained neck-on-neck throughout the allotted time, two sessions of 20 minutes each with a break of five minutes. Then Pakistan overtook India, the coach of the latter team rose to object a point scored by Malik Binyameen. Indian team’s coach Harpreet Singh intervened in the last moments of the match by raising objection to a point scored by Binyameen but the referee overruled the objection.

Binyameen who along with Irfan Mana and Shafiq Chishti, proved to be too heavy for their Indian counterparts as the three played a significant role in the win. After the match, the winning side completed a lap of honour around the stadium. A huge number of spectators came to watch the final between the arch-rivals. After the match ended, spectators lifted Pakistan players on to their shoulders, dancing to the beat of drums.

The match was attended by several dignitaries of the Punjab government. Pakistan and India had defeated Iran and Australia, respectively, to reach the final on Saturday. This is the first time the Kabaddi World Cup was held in Pakistan. All of the previous six-circle-style Kabaddi World Cups have been hosted by India with the most recent event taking place in 2016. The tournament was eight-days long with matches in Lahore, Faisalabad, Kartarpur and Nankana Sahib. Other than India, teams from Iran, Canada, Australia, United States, Sierra Leone and Kenya also participated in the event.