India nearly faltered in their first real test at the Asian Kabaddi Championships as they huffed and puffed to a 33-28 win over Iran on Wednesday.
Led by one of Pro Kabaddi League's best defenders in recent times, Mohammadreza Shadloui, the reigning Asian Games champions Iran pushed India to the tilt before falling short.
India were on the back foot as a cagey few opening minutes saw them trail 2-3. However, captain Pawan Sehrawat came to the fore as he pocketed a few raid points before Aslam Inamdar's two-point raid saw India inflict an All Out and march to an 11-5 lead.
Pawan switched gears thereafter and produced two two-point raids. The second of those raids saw Pawan land a massive kick on Iranian defender Heidar's face. India were on song and led by 10 points [19-9] at the interval. It appeared that this nearly full-strength Indian team was at a level above the second-string Iranian squad in front of them.
However, that idea evaporated early into the second half as the Iranian defence joined the party with four tackle points. The deficit had been cut down and the young raiders - Alireza and A. Mohammad - ran amok to reduce India to three men on the mat.
Staring at their first All Out of the Asian Kabaddi Championships, India scrambled for cover but there was no running. Alireza tormented the Indians as he got Pawan with a toe touch and then evaded Vishal Bharadwaj to earn his side two huge points and the All Out. Iran trailed by four points with six on the clock.
And then came [more] trouble: Shadloui, after two failed attempts, finally landed an ankle hold on Pawan to send the Indian captain back to the bench. India's defence, which managed all of five points in the entire game, remained sloppy as Mohammad landed a kick on Arjun and then tagged Parvesh Bhainswal to bring his side within four points of the lead.
Iran were in the ascendancy and with just three men on the mat, India looked anything but their dominant selves, as they had all through the Asian Kabaddi Championships. The three massive-margin wins over the last two days counted for nothing if they could not beat this second-string Iran team.
That's when Nitesh Kumar, who had just two points until then, said 'I got this'. The right corner grabbed Alireza in a stunning double thigh hold to bag two points, courtesy of the Super Tackle. Arjun, who had been a mute spectator for large parts of the game [and was PKL 9's most-successful raider], followed it up with a two-point raid to seal the match in India's favour.
While India managed to snatch the win, it was far from convincing. The pacy Iranian raiding unit highlighted the flaws in the Indian defence and India's raiders, while their defence gave the Indian raiders, who had been scoring points for fun until now, a dose of reality.
Sparring Pawan, none of the Indian raiders got going and Sachin Tawar, who did very well by coming off the bench in the last three games, was strongly left on the bench alongside the slightly-injured Naveen Kumar.
A win's a win, but there are more negatives than positives for India from this game. Negatives, which will have to be wiped out before India face Iran in Thursday's final. Negatives, which should cease to exist come September, when they begin their quest to claw the Asian Games title back from Iran.