Services rally past TN

Kabaddi National Championships : Karnataka men outclass BSNL for third victory

 Defending champions Services avoided an upset as they rallied to beat a defiant Tamil Nadu side 34-30 in the men's category of the 63rd Senior National Kabaddi Championship  here on Thursday.

It was an hotly-contested affair where tempers flared during the concluding minutes as Tamil Nadu coach R Samiyappan got into an argument with the referees and was removed from the technical area.

The game began at a tepid pace as both sides were defensively resolute. The opening point of the game came in the seventh minute as Tamil Nadu raider Selvamani slipped out of the playing area. The favour was returned by Services as Rohit Kumar suffered the same fate.

After the sombre start, Services began to take the initiative as Nitin Tomar began scoring freely with every one of his raids. Coming in to the game with the odds stacked heavily against them, Tamil Nadu refused to let it affect them as K Selvamani put in a couple of sublime raids to ensure Services didn't run away with the tie.

At the halfway stage, Services held a slender four-point advantage with the scoreboard reading 15-11.

Tamil Nadu began the second half in emphatic fashion as they began raking in the points and found themselves with an unlikely lead of 22-19.

Catcher C Arun was rock solid as his side negated the threat from Services' raids.
Services kept their calm as they cut the gap and pulled things back, trailing Tamil Nadu 26-24 with two minutes left on the clock.

In a frenetic last couple of minutes, Services’ Tomar put in a couple of smart raids to give his side a 31-28 lead.

This was when all hell broke loose. M Thivakaran claimed to have touched three Services defenders and should have received a bonus point as well, which would have given Tamil Nadu a one point lead, but the referee signalled just two points, much to the dismay of the players and coach. Samiyappan entered the playing area to confront the officials and was shown a yellow card for his actions and with their coach gone, Tamil Nadu lost the plot completely, going down 30-34.

In an earlier fixture, Karnataka thumped BSNL 43-23 to make it three wins out of four.
It was another Rai-Hegde show as Prashanth Rai and Sukesh Hegde were in fine form right from the start, scoring at will. In a dominant first half display, the home side enthralled a full house and found themselves in a comfortable position with a massive 32-5 lead at the break.

BSNL improved in the second half as Karnataka chose to rest skipper Shabeer Bapu, Jeeva Kumar, BS Santosh and Rai.

But fringe players Lokesh DT and Nitesh BR played error-free games in attack and defence respectively to secure the win.

Results: Men: Group A: Services bt Tamil Nadu 34-30; Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 42-30; Group B: Haryana bt Vidarbha 48-12; Group C: Puducherry bt Assam 51-48; Rajasthan bt Madhya Pradesh 41-34; Chhattisgarh bt Assam 47-19; Group D: BAKA bt Bihar 34-19; BAKA bt Odisha 37-9; Group E: Karnataka bt BSNL 43-23; West Bengal bt Andhra Pradesh 33-26; Maharashtra bt Bihar 42-13; Uttarakhand bt Andhra Pradesh 31-13; Uttarakhand bt BSNL 43-21; Group F: Chandigarh bt Punjab 50-35; Tripura bt Goa 28-21.

Women: Group A: Indian Railway bt Gujarat 34-6; Indian Railways bt Vidarbha 56-13; Andhra Pradesh bt Gujarat 37-18; Group B: Kerala bt Jammu and Kashmir 37-5; Haryana bt Kerala 40-15; Haryana bt Odisha 70-1; Group C: Himachal Pradesh bt Puducherry 66-16; Telangana bt Puducherry 51-41; Himachal Pradesh bt Uttar Pradesh 33-16; Group D: Punjab bt Bihar 38-19; Maharashtra bt Goa 39-3; Group E: Delhi bt Rajasthan 28-19; Delhi bt Jharkhand 49-2; Group F: BAKA drew with West Bengal (state unit) 7-7; West Bengal (state unit) bt Assam 29-16; Chandigarh bt West Bengal (state unit) 7-9.