Ahmedabad, Oct 12: India needed to make a statement and they did it in style as they battered Bangladesh with ease in their Group ‘A’ Kabaddi World Cup encounter here.
It was a dominant team performance with India living up to their favourites’ tag.
In a must-win crucial encounter, India maintained their reputation to beat Bangladesh 57-20.
Ajay Thakur scored 10 points for India after coming on as a substitute whereas Pardeep Narwal led India’s charge in the first half and ended with eight points.
India have got their World Cup campaign firmly back on track after suffering a setback in the opening encounter against Republic of Korea.
This was a stern test for India but they showed their class and brushed away a good Ban¬gladesh side with relative ease.
The host nation’s defence put on a tremendous show as they kept the Bangladesh raiders in their pocket for most of the match.
Pardeep got the first points for India with a raid in the third minute and Sandeep Narwal followed it with a tackle to give India 2-1 lead. India led 4-2 in the sixth minute with captain Anup Kumar scoring a bonus and tackle point. Bangladesh’s Firdaus Sheikh was in good form early in the match as he made four tackle points with score level at 4-4 after six minutes.
India came strongly to score four points in a row to lead 8-4 after nine minutes with defence doing a fine job. Pardeep scored his fourth raid point in the 10th minute as India inflicted an all out to lead 13-4. Bangladesh got their first raid point in the 12th minute as they trailed 5-14.
Pardeep was in superb form in the first half and scored his seventh raid point to give India 17-6 lead.
Thakur came on as a substitute to score five points as India led 21-8 after 17 minutes. India inflicted the second all out in the 18 th minute to take a commanding 24-9 lead.
India led 27-10 at the end of the first half as the attack and defence worked well in tandem to put on a solid performance.
Both teams exchanged a raid point each at the start of the second half as India led 28-11.
India used the opportunity to test their bench strength in the second half and got Surender Nada and Nitin Tomar.
In the Group ‘B’?fixture of the night, Iran edged past Kenya 33-28 in what was a closely fought game.
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