Explained: Why India-Iran men’s kabaddi Asiad final got suspended for an hour | Asian Games 2023 News

NEW DELHI: The Indian men’s kabaddi team final at the Asian Games will be remembered for a bizarre incident more than the team’s reclaiming the gold with a 33-29 win over defending champions Iran.
The match probably witnessed the ugliest scenes in the history of the sport and the continental event which even led to the suspension of the game for more than an hour.

A huge controversy erupted when both the teams were locked at 28-28 with one minute and five seconds left on the clock. It all started with Indian skipper Pawan Sehrawat going in for a do-or-die raid in the last minute.
Sehrawat ventured into the lobby, going out of bounds without making contact. However, Amirhossein Bastami and three other Iranian defenders swiftly rushed towards him in an attempt to push him out, creating a state of utter confusion and chaos on the field.
The critical moment left spectators and officials uncertain about whether Sehrawat had been successfully tackled or not.

Furthermore, there was a bewildering debate regarding which rule should apply in this situation – whether to follow the new rule that would deem Sehrawat out, or adhere to the old rule that would consider Sehrawat and all the Iranians who followed him out.
The discrepancy in rule interpretation could potentially result in India gaining four points while Iran would be awarded only one.
With the officials see-sawing between ruling in favour of India and Iran, both sets of players sat on the court in protest when the decision went against them in unprecedented scenes.
After a lot of deliberation, discussion and arguing by both sides, and the match being suspended, the officials ruled it in favour of India and the scoreline read 32-29.
Winners of seven consecutive gold medals at the continental showpiece, the Indian men’s team had suffered a shock semifinal loss to Iran at Jakarta five years ago. Iran looked the better team as it led 10-6. But the Indians made a thrilling comeback to take a 17-13 lead at half time after effecting two all outs.
Resuming after the lemon break, Sehrawat fetched a bonus point while the Iranians struggled.
The Indians then raced to a five point lead at 24-19. But the defending champions inflicted a timely ‘all out’ to level the game 25-25 with 10 minutes remaining on the clock.
(With PTI Inputs)