India thump Korea & Chinese Taipei on first day of Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023

Match 1: India vs Korea

Indian team started their Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023 campaign with a bang by securing two victories on the first day. Indian team thrashed the hosts Korea by a huge margin of 76-13 in their first match. Indian team inflicted seven all-outs on Korea and the Korean team could not stand at all in front of this strong Indian team. Team India did not face any challenge at all from the Korean team throughout the match. Pawan Sehrawat, Naveen Kumar, Arjun Deshwal, Surjit Singh, Parvesh Malik, Nitesh Kumar and Nitin Rawal were in the starting seven for India.

Indian team gave four all-outs in the first half

Pawan Sehrawat got the first point for the team. Within first 5 minutes of the game, the Indian team inflicted first all-out on Korea and took a 9-0 lead. Korea opened their account in the seventh minute. In the 11th minute, the Korean team got all-out again and gave India a 19-2 lead. India inflicted a total of 4 all-outs in the first half and secured an unassailable lead of 40-4.

Indian raiders performed brilliantaly

At the beginning of the second half, the Indian team increased their lead by giving another all out to Korea. Till the 37th minute of the game, Korean team got all-out for a record seven times. India performed exceptional in both departments and Korea was not given any chance at all.

Match 2: India vs Chinese Taipei

In the second match of the Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023, the Indian team secured a great victory against a decent Chinese Taipei side. Team India defeated Chinese Taipei by a margin of 53-20. Indian captain Pawan Sehrawat was again in good touch and he continuously got points for the team. However, Naveen Kumar didn't look settled in the second match and also got substituted in the first half due to injury.

Talking about the match, Pawan Sehrawat opened the team's account by scoring a point in the very first raid of the match. After this, he also scored a bonus and touchpoint in his second raid. Chinese Taipei opened their account with a bonus point. Naveen Kumar also took a point through toe touch to open his account. In the first 10 minutes, Chinese Taipei gave a tough fight to India as compared to Korea. They almost equalized the score by super-tackling Naveen Kumar.

Chinese Taipei's defense played brilliantly in the first 10 minutes

Chinese Taipei's defense was excellent in the first 10 minutes of the game and that's why raiders like Pawan Sehrawat and Naveen Kumar didn't get many chances to score points in the beginning. Taipei also saved itself from getting all out through its excellent defense. However, in the 12th minute, Pawan Sehrawat gave Chinese Taipei an all-out with an excellent raid and gave India a 13-6 lead. After this, the Indian team gradually increased the lead further and till half-time, the score was 21-12 in favour of India. Toward the end of the first half, Aslam Inamdar was brought in as a substitute for Naveen Kumar.

Indian team dominated in the second half

Chinese Taipei got off to a good start in the second half by tackling Arjun Deshwal but India dominated throughout. Pawan Sehrawat continued to bring points for India through his brilliant raiding skills. Later, super-sub Sachin Tanwar took raiding responsibility for raiding and performed brilliantly. In the 31st minute of the game, the Indian team inflicted another all-out on Chinese Taipei. Surjeet Singh didn't let the Chinese Taipei raiders get through the Indian defence with excellent blocks. Captain Pawan Sehrawat got substituted for Mohit Goyat in the 31st minute, but by then Team India's victory was assured. In the end, India won big by a margin of 33 points and secured second consecutive victory at Asian Kabaddi Championship 2023.