Kenya on revenge mission ahead of Kabaddi final

Kenya will be looking to win the Bangabandhu Cup International Kabaddi Tournament title when they face Bangladesh in the final of the eight-nation event at the Shaheed Noor Hossain Volleyball Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Bangladesh earlier stormed into the final after they defeated Iraq by 55-36 in the second semifinal while Kenya confirmed the final berth by beating Sri Lanka by 49-29 points in the first semifinal held at the same venue on Wednesday.

All-rounder Victor Onyango Obiero emerged man of the match getting a reward of 10000 Bangladesh Taka (Sh13,298.06).

In this year's tournament, Kenya won all its group stage matches against Indonesia 64-20, beat Iraq 54-29 and yesterday defeated Nepal 65-19 in the competition that is going on in the capital.

Kenya will be on a revenge mission in today's final as Bangladesh emerged unbeaten champions in the last edition of the tournament after they defeated Kenya by 34-28 points last year.

The Kenyan team is also using this year's tournament to prepare for the World Cup in December 2022 in Dubai, a competition in which they also finished second last year.

What is Kabaddi

Kabaddi is basically a combative two team sport, with four players on each side; it is played for a period of either 15 or 20 minutes with a 5 minutes break.

The core idea of the game is to score points by raiding into the opponent's court and touching, tagging or wrestling as many defence players as possible without getting caught while holding their breath.

The raider must then return to his half of the court on the same breath. The defenders would have formed a chain for example by linking arms, if this is broken then a member of that team is sent off.

If the raider runs out of breath then they are sent off. Every time a player goes out the opposition gain a point. The team with the most points will be declared the winner.

The name, sometimes chanted during a game, derives from a Hindi word meaning "holding of breath", which is a part of the game.

This rattle originally came from Pulse Kenya