MUMBAI won the title in the All India inter-zone inter-university women's kabaddi tournament conducted by Manonmaniam Sundaranar University at Tirunelveli. Eight Universities, four from South-West Zone — Mumbai, Nagarjuna, Madurai Kamaraj and Bangalore and four from North-East — Kurukshetra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Maharishi Dayanand, Rohtak (Haryana) — participated in the tournament which was played on league-cum-knock out basis. Four teams, Mumbai, Kurukshetra, Delhi and Nagarjuna qualified for the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals Mumbai beat Kurukshetra 32-28 via tie breaker, after the teams were locked 25-25.
In the other semi-final, Nagarjuna, which led 32-24 at half time, caved in to Delhi, which won 53-52.
In the final, Mumbai outplayed Delhi 29-12. Mumbai played a tactical game by dismissing Delhi's ace raider Pooja, who virtually took the team to the final, in the early stages and did not allow her much scope whenever she made her raid. With Pooja being taken care of Delhi had no alternative but to surrender.
However, the third place match between Nagarjuna and Kurukshetra evoked keen interest as it was decided only in sudden death. At full time, the teams were level 34-34 and after tie breaker the teams were locked at 39-39. For the sudden death Kurukshetra used three raiders, Sheetal, Paramjeet and Suman whereas for Nagarjuna only Nagalakshmi was raiding throughout. The teams gained one point with each raid alternately till the teams were level 46-all (7 raids for each team). But in the eighth raid, Sheetal got the point for Kurukshetra, while the rival team's Nagalakshmi was caught for the crucial winning point and Kurukshetra won 48-46.
Earlier, in the league phase, almost all the matches were purely one-sided affairs.
The results: (final): Mumbai bt Delhi 29-12. Third place match: Kurkshetra bt Nagarjuna 48-46 via Sudden Death.
Semi-finals: Mumbai bt Kurukshetra 32-28; Delhi bt Nagarjuna 53-52. League (Pool A): Kurukshetra bt Bangalore 44-23; bt Himachal Pradesh 43-39; drew with Nagarjuna 36-36. Nagarjuna bt Bangalore 51-19; bt Himachal Pradesh 59-33.
Himachal Pradesh bt Bangalore 57-20. Pool B: Mumbai bt Maharishi Dayanand 36-26; bt Madurai Kamaraj 45-13; bt Delhi 31-23. Delhi bt Maharishi Dayanand 61-42; bt Madurai Kamaraj 53-30. Madurai Kamaraj bt Maharishi Dayanand 55-43.
G. Venugopal
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