Star raider Sakshi was the hero of the final. She scored 9 raid points from just 10 raids, including two bonus points. She was on fire in the first half, where she was successful in all six of her raids and scored 7 points.
Captain Nidhi Sharma led from the front and scored 5 points, with three bonus points. Anu supported well with 6 raid points. In defence, Ritu and Suman were rock solid and scored 4 tackle points each.
Overall, India scored 20 raid points and 10 tackle points in the final. They also inflicted two All-Outs on Uganda.
For Uganda, Nakayongo Shirat fought alone. She did 24 raids out of Uganda’s 35 raids and scored 11 of their 15 points, including three bonus points. Their other raiders could score only 3 points combined. Their semi-final star Nalwoga Nahia was stopped and could score only 1 point.
Zalwango Jemima made the only successful tackle for Uganda in the second half. Uganda scored 14 raid points and just 1 tackle point in the whole match.
How India Women won the final?
The final was close at the start. India were leading 7-3 with 10 minutes left in the first half. After that, India changed gears and outscored Uganda 15-4, including an All-Out, to take a big lead of 22-7 at half-time.
India did not lose a single raid in the first half. Uganda failed in all nine of their tackle attempts, while India made six successful tackles.
After the break, Uganda tried to fight back and scored 7 raid points against India’s 6. But India’s second All-Out with less than 10 minutes left sealed the match. India tackled Uganda’s raiders 10 times in the match and converted three of their four do-or-die raids.
Sakshi’s reaction after winning gold
Sakshi was the best player of the final and finished the championship with 52 points from six matches. After the win, she was very happy.
“I’m feeling great that I could score 9 raid points and help the team win. The atmosphere in the team is euphoric after winning the gold medal and everyone is very happy. This event was very important for Kabaddi as such International tournaments will help the growth of the sport and our young players will benefit a lot from this experience. I could see a lot of improvement in other teams from last year. I want to thank AKFI for organising such a wonderful championship,” Sakshi said.
India dominated from day one. They started with a huge 73-13 win over Malaysia, then beat Singapore 32-16, Uganda 41-18 in group stage, and Nigeria 38-10 to top Group A. In the semi-final, they thrashed Sri Lanka 39-14 before beating Uganda again in the final to become Commonwealth champions.