Aditya Shinde’s Super 10 finished off Sri Lanka, and India have won both Commonwealth kabaddi titles

India went into Saturday night in Ahmedabad with two finals and won both by a distance. The women beat Uganda 35-15, and later that evening the men beat Sri Lanka 54-20. Neither final was close at half-time, and Both Indian teams finish the first Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship unbeaten, the women with six wins from six and the men with eight from eight.

Uganda had no answer to Sakshi

Uganda had knocked out unbeaten Kenya 23-21 in their semi-final, so there was a case for expecting a tighter game than the 41-18 India won when the two sides met in the group stage. It lasted about ten minutes. India were 7-3 up at that point and 22-7 up at the break.

Sakshi was again the best raider on the mat. She went to the opposite half six times in the first half and came back with points every time, and finished with 9 raid points from 10 raids. Anu added 6 and captain Nidhi Sharma 5. India did not lose a raid before half-time, and Uganda missed all nine tackles they tried in that half.

Shirat Nakayongo did almost everything for Uganda. She made 24 of their 35 raids and scored 11 of their 15 points. The rest of the side managed four between them, and Uganda’s only tackle point came in the second half. They won the second-half raid count 7-6, but India’s second all-out came with under ten minutes left and that was that.

Ritu and Suman had four tackle points each, and India finished with 10 tackle points to Uganda’s one. Sakshi ended the tournament with 52 points from six matches.

Shinde’s Super 10 finishes Sri Lanka

The men’s final was 15-8 with about ten minutes of the first half left, which was roughly as close as Sri Lanka got. India scored the next 15 points to Sri Lanka’s two and went in 30-10 up, with two all-outs already on the board. They added two more in the second half and did not concede one all night.

Aditya Shinde was the top raider with 10 points from 14 raids, four of them bonuses. Bharat Hooda had none in the first half and still finished with 8, Pankaj Mohite had 6, and vice-captain Naveen Kumar 5. Yogesh Dahiya took a High 5 from five tackle attempts.

Sri Lanka’s raiders were the problem. Sabihan, Milinda Chathuranga and Viduranga had carried them past Kenya 28-24 in the semi-final, but between them they made five raid points from 31 raids in the final. Sri Lanka’s best player was a defender, Maduwantha, with six tackle points and two Super Tackles. India made 24 successful raids from 40, Sri Lanka seven from 41.

No one got past 30 against India’s men

India’s men scored 380 points in eight games and conceded 193. Nobody scored more than 30 against them, and they beat Sri Lanka twice, 45-24 in the group and then this. It is a good tournament for captain Surjeet Singh and for Naveen, both of whom missed out on the Asian Games squad earlier this year.

Shinde thanked the crowd in Ahmedabad and said the team hoped people would back them the same way at the competitions to come.

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