Punjab Stadium hosts Kabaddi WC semifinals today: Pakistan, India score comfortable victories

LAHORE: Pakistan and India won their last pool matches of Kabaddi World Cup 2020 comfortably against Azerbaijan and England respectively at Ch Zahoor Elahi Stadium, Gujrat on Friday.

After winning their last pool matches, India set up first semifinal clash against Australia at 6.00pm while Pakistan will meet Iran in second semifinal at 7.30pm at Punjab Stadium on Saturday (today).

Speaker Punjab Assembly Ch Pervez Elahi was the chief guest of Kabaddi World Cup matches. He was introduced with all teams ahead of their matches. President Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) Ch Shafay Hussain, Secretary PKF Rana Sarwar and other officials were also present on this occasion.

Pakistan won the toss and showed their class against rookie team Azerbaijan and defeated them by 40-30. Pakistan were leading by 23-16 at half time.

For Pakistan, raiders skipper Irfan Mana, Kaleemullah Jatt and Malik Binyameen scored valuable points for their team while Pervaiz and Subhan also demonstrated good game for Azerbaijan. Akmal Shahzad Dogar remained best raider while Ali Wariach was named best stopper of match.

In the second match of the day India outplayed England by 44-26 without much trouble. England team offered some resistance but defending champion India defied their moves skillfully in both raiding and stopping department.

Indian team was leading by 21-15 at half time. Malinder Singh was adjudged best raider while the title of best stopper was awarded to Arshdeep Singh.

India’s Arsh Jhola, Deepak Kashi and Ravi Kumar amused the audience with wonderful raids while England’s Sukha Lakhpuria, Rana Akmal, Ali and Sajid won huge appreciation from large gathering through their kabaddi skills.

Talking to media, Speaker Punjab Assembly Ch Pervez Elahi welcomed all the participating teams and kabaddi lovers at Ch Zahoor Elahi Stadium, Gujrat. “Gujrat has immense sports talent and the Kabaddi World Cup 2020 matches at Ch Zahoor Elahi Stadium will play a major role in promoting this game in Gujrat,” he added.

Pervez Elahi said that definitely it’s a great honour for Gujrat to host matches of Kabaddi World Cup involving top teams like India, Pakistan and England.

“We will also invite international teams of other games in Gujrat in future. The sports passion of Gujrat youth reflected that the future of sports is bright in our city”.

Kabaddi World Cup final points table

Pool A

Teams P W L Pts

India 4 4 - 8

Iran 4 3 1 6

Germany 4 2 2 4

England 4 1 3 2

Sierra Leone 4 - 4 0

Pool B

Pakistan 3 3 - 6

Australia 3 2 1 4

Canada 3 1 2 2

Azerbaijan 3 - 3 0.