LAHORE: Pakistan won the World Circle-Style Kabaddi Cup 2020 after defeating archrivals India 43-41 at the Punjab Stadium here on Sunday.

It’s for the first time that Pakis­tan laid hands at the World Cup as defending champions India — six time winner — could not continue their so far unbeatable spree.

Carrying national flags in their hands, Pakistan players took a round of the stadium.

A large number of people came to witness live the final between the archrivals and continued boosting morale of both the teams. They lifted Pakistan players on to their shoulders and danced to the tune of drums.

Pakistan won the toss and decided to raid first. In the beginning, India were leading and maintaining the margin of a couple of points until the first session was over.

The contest between the South Asian neighbors remained neck-and-neck throughout the allotted time, two sessions of 20 minutes each with a break of five minutes.

Then Pakistan overtook India, the coach of the latter team rose to object a point scored by Binyameen. Indian team’s coach Harpreet Singh intervened in the last moments of the match by raising objection to a point scored by Malik Binyameen but the referee overruled the objection.

Binyameen, who along with Irfan Mana and Shafiq Chishti, proved to be too heavy for their Indian counterparts as the three played a significant role in the win.

The world Kabaddi contest had begun here last Sunday. At least 10 countries — India, England, Australia, Canada, Azerbaijan, Germany, Iran, Kenya and Sierra Leone — participated in the event organised in three Punjab towns — Lahore, Faisalabad and Gujrat.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020