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India became the first mens champions of the inaugural Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship 2026 with a 54-20 win over Sri Lanka. The title completed a double for India, after India Women also beat Uganda, Women 35-15 in the womens final earlier in the evening.
Aditya Shinde top-scored for India with a Super 10, scoring 10 raid points from 14 raids, including four bonus points. Bharat Hooda added eight raid points, all in the second half. He was not tackled once in seven raids. Pankaj Mohite chipped in with six points and vice-captain Naveen Kumar added five. Yogesh Dahiya led the defence with a High 5, making five successful tackles from five attempts, all in the first half. Shubham Shinde, captain Surjeet Singh, Pravesh Malik and Deepak Sankar added two tackle points each. India scored 30 raid points and 14 tackle points, inflicted four All-Outs and did not concede one. Maduwantha was Sri Lankas top scorer with six tackle points, including two Super Tackles, while Ansaf and Viduranga added three points each. Sri Lankas raiders struggled throughout. Sabihan, Milinda Chathuranga and Viduranga had led the scoring in the semi-final win over Kenya, but managed just five raid points from 31 raids between them in the final. Sri Lanka also failed in seven of their nine do-or-die raids, finishing with 11 raid points and nine tackle points. India led 15-8 with 10 minutes of the first half remaining, having already inflicted an All-Out. They then outscored Sri Lanka 15-2 to lead 30-10 at half-time, with a second All-Out coming in the closing five minutes of the half. Sri Lanka managed just two successful raids from 21 in the first half, while Indias defenders made nine successful tackles from 10 attempts. India inflicted two more All-Outs after the break, the last of them in the final five minutes, and won the second half 24-10. Across the match, India made 24 successful raids from 40, compared with Sri Lankas seven from 41. Speaking after the match, Aditya Shinde, who top-scored for India with a Super 10, said, With more and more tournaments being held, its great for the people of Ahmedabad too, and we received so much support from them. We hope everyone comes out to support us the same way in the competitions ahead. There will be a celebration, a really big one, and its already going on here! Indias title capped a perfect campaign of eight wins from eight matches. They topped Group A with six wins, beating England 46-26, Uganda 44-30, Malaysia 37-23, Nigeria 50-23, Tanzania 48-20 and Sri Lanka 45-24. They then thrashed Bangladesh 56-27 in the semi-final and Sri Lanka 54-20 in the final. India scored 380 points across the tournament and conceded 193, and no opponent scored more than 30 against them. (ANI)
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