Bangabandhu Cup International Kabaddi tournament went underway in  Shahid Noor Hossain National Volleyball Stadium, Dhaka on 28th March 2021. Bangabandhu Cup 2021 marks the return of international Kabaddi in Bangladesh after a gap of 10 years. Day 1 of the tournament saw hosts Bangladesh taking on Poland and Sri Lanka taking on Kenya in the Bangladeshi capital. 

The Tournament started off with a opening ceremony where all five participating teams took part in the march past as they call it in Kabaddi. First match of Bangabandhu Cup 2021 saw the hosts Bangladesh take on Poland. Bangladesh were at it from the word go as they picked up the first point of the match. Bangladesh kept taking points at regular intervals to keep Poland out of the game. Poland showed some glimpses of their character by coming back in intervals but they were always behind the score of the hosts. At the end of 1st half the scores read 20-11 in favor of Bangladesh. The hosts started off the 2nd half of the game by scoring a Super Raid (3 points) and from there on there was no looking back. Bangladesh went on to win the game with a score difference of 18 points. 

The 2nd match of the day saw Kenya take on the island nation Sri Lanka. The match started with both teams showing competitive spirit by scoring points and game was running neck to neck in the 1st ten minutes. In the final ten minutes of the 1st half saw Kenya make life difficult for Sri Lanka as they kept scoring points at will. At the end of the 1st half scores read 17-10 in favor of Kenya. The second half began with Sri Lanka on the attack which saw them score seven points in first four raids of the half to inflict an all-out on Kenya to equalize the score. From there on both teams kept scoring points and the scores remained very close. In the end it was Sri Lanka who held their nerves to pull off a two point win over Kenya. 

Summary Results from Day 1 of Bangabandhu Cup 2021

• Match 1- Bangladesh vs Poland: 40-22

• Match 2- Sri Lanka vs Kenya: 35-33

Day 1 of the Bangabandhu Cup saw Hosts Bangladesh dominating Poland and a surprise performance by Kenya which went in vain. Day 2 of this tournament has two interesting matches lined up with Sri Lanka taking on Poland and Bangladesh taking on Nepal. It will be interesting to see which team will go back with a smile a on their face at the end of the day.

Stay tuned to Kabaddi Adda for updates from Bangabandhu Cup 2021