Asian Kabaddi C'ship: India confident of tackling Iran in gold medal battle

India skipper Pawan Sehrawat and India head coach Ashan Kumar

India and Iran have been rivals in kabaddi for a few years now. In one of the biggest upsets in Asian Games history, Iran beat India 27-18 in the 2018 Asian Games semi-final in Jakarta.

On Thursday, however, India beat Iran 33-28 in a closely-contested last league match of the Asian Kabaddi Championship in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday to set up a mouth-watering final clash against the same opponents today.

India captain Pawan Sehrawat admitted that some of his teammates were under pressure while playing against the Asian Games champions. "Some of our players are playing in an international tournament for the first time, so they were under a bit of pressure. Iran are a very good team and we came up with a good performance today [Thursday]. But the main match is tomorrow's [Friday] final and we are preparing for that," said Sehrawat.

Head coach Ashan Kumar added that the Indians had planned well for the Iran clash.

"It was a tough game against Iran because both teams played well. We dominated the proceedings in the first half [19-9], but committed a few mistakes. Otherwise, the margin of victory could have been bigger. We came back in the game at the right time," said Ashan, who led India to the gold medal at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing.

When asked about the team's preparations ahead of the all-important final against the same opponents, Ashan said his team are well prepared for the rematch. "If they [Iran] have a different strategy for the final, we too have our plans. We are ready for the decider and I'm confident that we'll return home with the gold medal," he added.

Earlier in the competition, India outclassed South Korea 76-13, Chinese Taipei 53-20 and Japan 62-17.

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