India outclassed England in all departments of the game and clinched a semifinal spot from Group A in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup at the Arena by TransStadia on Tuesday.
The Narwals – Pardeep and Sandeep – and Ajay Thakur moved in top gear while raiding and with good support from defender Surjeet, India steamrolled England 69-18 in the league match.
The home team’s big win did not alter its position as it retained its second position behind Korea, the only team to come unscathed in the league.
Kenya jumped to the second position behind Iran in Group B with a resounding win against USA.
The African nation’s progress to the semifinals would largely hinge in the outcome of the clash between Thailand and Japan in the last league match of the competition.
A win for Thailand (15 points from four games) would straightaway eliminate Japan and Kenya, but a victory for Japan would bring the differential score (difference between total points won and total points conceded) into calculation and the team with a higher differential score will qualify for the semifinal.
The tournament rule says that "in case of a tie even after differential score has been considered, only total points scored will be considered and the team that has scored more points will qualify for the semifinals.’’
So in the circumstances the Japan-Thailand could turn out to be a humdinger but Thailand would perhaps would start the match as a fancied team having won three matches in a row after the defeat against Iran in its first match. Kenya ended the league stage in flying colours with playmaker and captain David Mosambayi scoring 12 points.
The result:Group A: India bt England 69-18; Group B: Kenya bt USA 74-19.
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