Defending champions Bangladesh and Nepal reached the final of the fourth Bangabandhu Cup International Kabaddi Tournament after beating their respective rivals in the semi-finals at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday.
Bangladesh will look to clinch the title for the fourth consecutive time when they will take on first-time finalists Nepal in the final, scheduled to be held at 4:00pm today.
T sports will televise the 12-team final live from the venue.
In the day鈥檚 first semi-final, Bangladesh defeated Thailand by 41-18 points with three lonas after dominating the first half by 23-8 points with two lonas.
Thailand was eliminated from this competition for the second time in a row for the semi-finals at the hands of the hosts. They also lost in last edition鈥檚 semi-final by 45-26 points against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, who have never conceded a defeat in any edition of this tournament, reached the semi-final as Pool A champions by beating Nepal 46-31, Poland 79-28, Indonesia 59-19, Malaysia 73-22, and South Korea by 67-22 points.
In the second semi-final, Nepal upset the first two-edition finalists, Kenya, by 59-55 points in tie-breaker after the match was tied at 50-50 points in the stipulated time. Nepal were trailing by 20-27 points in the first half.
Nepal reached the semi-finals as the Pool-A runners-up as they beat Malaysia 67-30, Poland 93-41, South Korea 67-45, and Indonesia by 63-35 points. Their only defeat came against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh coach Abdul Jalil hoped that his charges would be able to retain the title.
鈥業 hope, we will win the trophy. Nepalese are our known opponents. And the final against them will surely be exciting,鈥� said Jalil.
Nepalese coach Bishnu Dutt Bhat was optimistic about winning the title, saying, 鈥楾his is the first time we鈥檝e reached the final. Bangladesh are a good team; we lost to them in the group stage. However, we will aim to perform better in the final to win the championship.鈥�