Asian Games Kabaddi: Indian women's team reclaim the crown with a gold

Indian women's Kabaddi team survived a scare from the Chinese Taipei to reclaim their lost crown from 2018 and win the gold at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China on Saturday.

This third gold for the Indian women's kabaddi team at the Asian Games. The other two golds came in the 2010 and 2014 editions while the team silver in the 2018 edition.

Facing the dark horses of the tournament, Chinese Taipei, who knocked out defending champions Iran, India started well in the match. Feng of Chinese Taipei started troubling India and gave Taipei a lead of 4-3.

Indian raider Pooja Haathavala turned with a huge raid that saw her take three defenders and one bonus to make it 11-7 for India.

The Indian team held on to that lead till the half despite two errors from the defence.

India started the second half with the lead as the Chinese Taipei team super-tackled Pushpa Rana and Sakshi's unforced error didn't help India much. The score came to 17-14 with India barely leading.

With the clock ticking down, the Indian team started showing nerves as the errors started creeping in. Chinese Taipei inflicted an all-out on the Indian team to lead 21-19.

Pooja Haathavala came to India's rescue again as she took two raid points to put India back in the lead.

The Indian team kept their calm in the last moments to take one extra point and with the third Asian Games gold medal with a score of 26-25.