Dubai “Cheers for India boosted our confidence,” remarked Indian skipper Ajay Thakur after leading his team to an emphatic 36-20 win over Pakistan in the opening match of the Kabaddi Masters Dubai six-nation tournament opener at the Al Wasl Sports Club on Friday.
Much before the start the match all the seats at the indoor stadium were occupied with India and Pakistan fans waving the flags of their respective countries. The cheers reached its crescendo when India raced to a big lead.
From the start India dominated and lead the score. “It was nice to see so many people come out to support for India. It was almost the same as playing in India,” added Thakur, who was also the architect of the victory as he finished with 10 points in the match.
India coach Srinivas Reddy attributed his team’s victory to the raids made by the Indian team: “Our raids were better than Pakistan’s and that was the difference.” Reddy then went on to hail Thakur. “He broke both their (Pakistan) corners and dismantled their defence early on.”
Pakistan team attributed their defeat to the team’s late arrival for the tournament. Due to visa hurdles they could arrive only on the day of the match. “We arrived only at 7am here today and got hardly any time to practice. We hope to improve in the coming matches,” remarked coach Nabeel Ahmad.
Thakur revealed that since the opening match was against Pakistan they came very well prepared. “Since we knew that our opening match will be against Pakistan, we did not want to make any mistake and lose the opening match. In fact we had a national camp four nearly four months for this tournament.”
Thakur had planned well in advance how to handle the challenge from Pakistan. “I wanted to make sure we don’t lose the opening match because once the opener is lost it can lead to losing of confidence too and the team can come under pressure. So I told my team to take the first match very seriously and if we win it will be better for us. Now that we have won our confidence too has increased. It is the perfect start for the team.”
India finished the first half with a lead of 22-9. Pakistan could score only nine raid points in the entire match with Mudassar Ali scoring six of them. For India Rohit Kumar too sparkled through some splendid raiding performance and scoring seven points.
In the second match of the day, Iran defeated Korea 35-20.
India will meet Pakistan again in the second match on Monday.
