SDM crowned champions in the rain interrupted final of the Kempegowda Cup 2021

Finally, Kabaddi returned to the state of Karnataka after a long gap with KEMPE GOWDA CUP 2021.  This was a college-level tournament in Bangalore and was organized by Kempe Gowda Institute of Management Studies and the venue was also the same.15 matches took place in total. The matches went underway in the morning and lasted till late evening. 

You can follow all the match scores and action on our match center link - https://www.kabaddiadda.com/tournament/92-kempe-gowda-cup-2021/schedule

The return of kabaddi was a treat to the eyes of the local spectators. Some breathtaking moments from raiders and defenders alike saw the crowd getting off their feet. 

The league stage started with a bang as the tournament favorites SDM, started with a dominating 11 point win against the minnows  SAF college. ALVAS Mudbidri, the other favorites of the tournament started on a similar note. They beat NMC College by a scoreline of 40 -29 points.
  
Both teams remained unbeaten in the league stage as they won all of their games easily to book their spot in the semi-final. The rest of the two spots was going to be the real challenge. KIMS college was looking to make the home support count. They managed to book their place in the semi-final as they won 2 out of their 3 games in the league the only loss coming against ALVAS Mudbidri.

The last spot fight came down to the wire. Darshan College and SAFG College came head to head in the last game with winners taking it all. Both teams battled hard but, SAFG College was able to hold their nerve this time unlike, their previous game, they lost by a single point. SAFG ran out as winners in the last league game by 6 points over Darshan College to seal the last spot.  

First Semi-Final took place between SDM Ujire And KIMS College.

SDM Ujire came into this game being unbeaten so far in the league. They played 3 league games before reaching here and winning all their games with relative ease without breaking a sweat. Rathan their star raider, was leading the team single-handedly. He had scored 32 raid points till then, an avg of 10 points per match being the player to watch out for. In defense, Santosh BT and Sushanth Shetty were holding their nerves and scoring crucial tackle points.

KIMS College, on the other hand, was the host team. They were favorites to go through with the locals supporting them. They also played 3 matches so far in the league stage but faced one heavy defeat against ALVAS Mudbidri who, are into the 2 nd semi-finals and will play later. For the host, Sanjay was their consistent performer with 25 tackle points in three matches. In defense, Abhishek and Adarsh started strongly. But their paring was thrashed in their last group game and was hoping to stay solid in the semis.

The match started with some nervousness from both the teams as they went with empty raids. Parthap S for SDM scored the first point of the game with a multi raid. Dharma came out for the game's first D.O.D raid and leveled the proceedings with his multi-point raid. 

Both teams were fighting neck to neck. Both teams were not ready to concede to one another. But KIMS scored a tackle point and bonus points in the last raids of the first half as the half ended with KIMS leading by a scoreline of SDM Ujire 8 - 10 KIMS College. 

KIMS college began their 2nd half from where they left, as their defense scored 2 points to hand a 4 point lead to their team. Santhosh BT scored the first point of the half for SDM. Rathan who had a quiet first half, soon came back to life as he scored 5 raid points in his next set of raids. This forced KIMS into conceding the game first all-out as SDM took the lead from KIMS college and lead them by 6 points. The game's first all-out gave all the momentum to SDM. 

But the match was far from over. Dharma single-handedly scored 6 raid points with one super raid in between to force SDM into an all-out. SDM was now leading by just 5 points. But SDM played the last few minutes of the match smartly as Rathan once again dished out a super raid, in the end, the match ended with a scoreline of SDM Ujire 31 - 25 KIMS College. 

Rathan was once again the man of the match for SDM. He scored yet another super 10 and ended the game with 13 raid points. SDM continued their winning run and were now the favorites to win the title going into the finals.

The 2nd semi-final and final were interrupted due to heavy rainfall which forced the play to halt. After waiting for an hour when it looked like the rain would not stop. Eventually, the 2nd semifinal and final were decided based on a coin toss. The final winner was SDM, who won the final against Alvas by the toss of the coin.