TOP contenders Air-India destroyed an off-colour Western Railway 33-13 to claim the Rajaram Sheth Lad Gold Cup in the Shivneri’s Sewa Mandal-URL Foundation Kabaddi Festival at Dadar on Saturday. The Gold Cup final proved to be an anticlimax as the other three finals played earlier in the day seemed to give the spectators their money’s worth.

In the Radha Lad Cup for women, Shivshakti avenged last year’s loss by beating Veer Jijamata 14-12. Suvarna Bartakke, with her all round abilities, saw Shivshakti through, and also went on to be adjudged the best player in the tournament. The Gold Cup final was expected to be a close one and the initial phase saw both the teams live up to their respective reputations. Gaurav Shetty drew first blood for Air-India and Ravi Radke responded for the railmen. Radke had had Shetty and Pankaj out in one raid. Down 5-10, after Ajay Thakur scalped three in one raid, Western came back to trap international Dinesh Kumar.

It helped them claw back to 9-13 at the interval and remain within striking distance of their rivals. The failure of Kunal Yadav in attack started hurting Western thereafter and their woes were compounded as Ajay Thakur struck splendid form for Air-India.

The lean and lanky raider showed excellent technique to toe-touch the rival corner defenders and once even got three rivals out in a raid. Kumar, not to be left behind got three and two opponents out in successive raids to put his side in cruise mode. At 26-11 with five minutes left the match was reduced to a formality. Air-India gave the second ‘lona’and finished the issue off 33-13.

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