Jakarta: Iran hurt India’s pride in kabaddi yet again as they delivered a second straight knockout punch to the sport’s most successful nation in the women’s gold medal match of the Asian Games here Friday.
The two-time defending champions were shocked 24-27 in a thrilling final as the firm favourites settled for silver.
India’s raiders disappointed in the title clash as Iran came from behind to jolt them in the second half. The Iranian women thus emulated their male counterparts, who had shocked seven-time champions India in the semifinals played Thursday.
Payel and Sonali wAsian gamesere effective with their raids while the defenders also handled the tackles well as the Indians raced to a 7-3 lead.
The most dangerous looking Iranian was Azadeh Saidisiahbidi but she was forced out after a successful tackle. Randeep Kaur went for a raid after Iran’s two-point raid but she was unsuccessful as Iran gradually reduced the deficit to 6-7.
Randeep though made amends in the next attempt with a two-point raid, pushing India ahead 13-8. Azadeh touched out Ritu and Manpreet and captain Payel was caught by the Iranian defenders but still India had a 13-11 lead at the end of first half.
Iran scored six points in a row to race to a 17-13 lead with an all out. With just two minutes to go, Sakshi Kumari earned two points with a successful raid to make it 24-25 but the Iranians held their nerves to prevail.
Iran’s coach India’s former player Shailja Jain, said she will head back to the country with pride. “I had told them I don’t want to go back to India without a gold. I told them I don’t want any gifts but just the gold. And they did it,” a beaming Shailja said.