The Indian women’s team won the first-ever Kho Kho World Cup after defeating Nepal in a showdown clash at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday, January 19.
The Priyanka Ingle-led Indian team handed a drubbing to the Nepalese team with a 78-40 win in the final. The hosts were too hot to handle for the opposition as they dominated the proceedings in both chase and defence.
The Women in Blue took an early lead of 34-0 at the end of turn 1, as they attacked first. Nepal closed in the gap when they attacked, bringing it to 35-24 at the end of turn 2. The visitors were hanging by a thread, but the Women in Blue possibly took it away in turn 3, when they earned 38 more points.
Nepal had no answers to the giant 49-point lead. In the last turn when they were attacking, Nepal women found it extremely hard to catch the Indian defenders and could only amass 16 points. The hosts won the tournament with a scoreline of 78-40.
The Indian women’s team has been undefeated in the entire tournament. They thrashed opposition sides for fun. They topped Group A with three wins in three outings. The Women in Blue began the tournament with a 157-point win over South Korea as they thrashed them 175-18. They registered an 84-point victory in their next game against Iran with a scoreline of 100-16. They handed another drubbing in their final group game to Malaysia with a 100-20 win.
India faced South Africa in the semifinal and were unstoppable in that game too. Led by a brilliant all-round game, the Women in Blue defeated the African side 66-16 to make their way into the finals.
Meanwhile, Nepal were also unbeaten in the tournament until the final. They had won four out of four matches in the group stage with wins over Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Germany. Nepal faced Uganda in the semifinal and blew them away with an 89-18 victory. Nepal looked unstoppable too until they met India, who thrashed them to lift the maiden Kho Kho World Cup in the women’s category.
