Day Two Recap – 18th March

The second day of the Paddy Power Kabaddi World Cup at WV Aldersley in Wolverhampton got underway with an dominant performance by the Wales men’s team, with an All Out near the beginning, and picking up the pace in the third quarter to help deliver a decisive win against Italy. 

A very experienced Indian women’s team quickly reversed Wales’s fortunes in the next match, with a physical, unified and technically expert display which racked up 89 points to Wales’s 18. There followed an equally excellent display in the last match of the morning session by England’s women’s team who put in both a dominant, tackling performance and clocked up multiple Super Raids against the less experienced Hungarian women’s team. England finished up 70 points ahead with their first win of the competition.

The afternoon session kicked off with a solid performance by Poland to beat their European counterparts, Hungary. By mid-afternoon the atmosphere was electric, with a spectacular performance by Scotland: the upset of the championship so far, Scotland were ahead for three quarters of the match, with India only holding Scotland to a draw right at the death, 64 points each. India, as defending champions, were heavily tipped to win this match, and a jubilant Scottish team and home crowd celebrated what coach Skip Dhillon described as “exactly what we hoped for, what we prayed for -I’m viewing it as a win for Scotland”. Last up a powerful and well-balanced match between Hong Kong China and Wales, with Wales just coming through strongly to win their second match of the day. 

The championships also welcomed Chris Jenkins, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, watching his first ever kabaddi matches, who confirmed that he’d been “blown away” by what he’d seen: ”the atmosphere, the match itself is very physical and really exciting.” 

Match results

• Match 1: Italy v Wales (men): Final score: Italy 32 v Wales 71 
• Match 2: India v Wales (women): Final score: India 89 v Wales 18
• Match 3: England v Hungary (women): Final score: England 85 v Hungary 15
• Match 4: Poland v Hungary (men): Final score: Poland 87 v Hungary 27
• Match 5: India v Scotland (men): Final score: India 64 v Scotland 64
• Match 6: Hong Kong China v Wales (men): Final score: Hong Kong China 49 v Wales 68