Bangladesh reach semi-final in style

Dhaka, 7 March -Bangladesh women's kabaddi team reached the semi-final of the 6th edition of the Asian Women's Kabaddi Championship when they beat Thailand by 42-27 points (1st half 22-13 points) in their last pool A match held at the Iranian town of Pardis Friday.

With this victory, Bangladesh also secured brounze medal in Asian kabaddi for the first time.

Bangladesh will now play the second semi-final match against host Iran this evening at 7.30 pm (BST) after the first semi-final match between defending champions India and Nepal at 6.30 pm.

Favourites India has qualified for the semi-final of the championship by winning all their group matches. They defeated Malaysia by a huge margin of 73-19 points in their last match of the group. 

Iraq has been eliminated from pool B of the tournament after losing two matches. 

The match between hosts Iran and Nepal was to decide the group top and Iran defeated Nepal by 47-14 points to reach the last four spot as the group champions.

Earlier, on Thursday last, Bangladesh a made losing start kabaddi championship when they were beaten by defending champions India by 64-23 points in their opening Pool A encounter but they bounced back to register a massive 52-12 points victory over Malaysia in the second match. 

The final round of the championship will be held Saturday. 

The championship will serve as a platform ahead of the Women's Kabaddi World Cup, set to take place in Bihar later this year. This will serve as a preparatory ground for the participating teams to fine-tune their skills.BSS