Champions dethroned

Chennai and hosts Kuala Lumpur booked their final date in the KL International Inter City Kabaddi Championships in contrasting styles at the Stadium Titiwangsa.

Chennai showed technical superiority to subdue Oslo in their semi-finals while Kuala made heavy weather of their match against Patialla.

Both teams qualified for the semi-finals after topping their respective groups unbeaten.

Chennai thoroughly deserved their spot on the final, but their win was marred by some poor sportsmanship on the part of their rivals.

Oslo walked out of the game with just two minutes remaining on the clock, despite having no chance whatsoever to win the game.

They were trailing Chennai by more six points at that stage and much to the dismay of all, disputed a call made against them by the match officials and walked out of their match.

Their action came with a heavy price as Oslo would be unable to play in the playoff for third place after having conceded a walkover. Chennai were leading 26-19 when the dispute happened.

In the other semi-finals, Kuala Lumpur left it until the closing stages to steal the game away from defending champions Patialla.

It was the reverse of what transpired in the final of the last edition of the championships, with Kuala Lumpur suffering defeat after conceding valuable points at the closing stages.

This time it was the turn of Patialla to suffer the fate. They led by as much as five points in the game and looked poised to qualify for the final.

But KL kept their composure and tied the game at 20-20 after their raider K. Siva put out three players from the Patialla side to clinch a lona.

The tide quickly changed towards Kuala Lumpur, who picked up three more consecutive points to walk away winners.

In the women’s competition, Jagatpura have made it to the finals.
Their final opponent would be decided after the match between Oslo and Kuala Lumpur.

The women’s final would be played at 5pm on Sunday followed by the men’s final.