After trailing the opening half 7-2, India men's team stunned their familiar opponents by winning the nail-biting final by 8-7 to seal their fourth straight World Cup title unbeaten. India, who created the game in recent time, won all four editions of the tournament.
India women's team handed Iran a convincing 6-4 defeat to become unbeaten champions in the women's category for the second time at Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur.
Hosts Bangladesh men's team, who reached the semifinals for the first time, suffered their first defeat in the tournament on the same day to finish fourth out of 37 countries. Bangladesh finished seventh in the last World Cup held in Pune, India in 2015.
It was however Bangladesh's best ever finish among four editions of the World Cup. They lost to Iran, who was the finalists in last three editions, by 11-3 in the semifinals at Mirpur Indoor Stadium before conceding another defeat of 7-1 against a strong Kenya side in the third-place deciding match. After the opening half ended 1-1, Bangladesh boys couldn't hold onto their fine form in the second half.
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An action from the women’s Roll Ball World Cup final match between India and Iran at Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur yesterday
MI Manik [/caption]
“We were moving forward for the final but what happened is bad luck for us. We lost against the heights and strength of the opponent teams. Our players have better pace but these two things are the only difference between the us and them,” said Bangladesh coach Ashraful Alam Masum after the game on Wednesday.
He added, “Next time when we form a new team we will give more priority on these two things. It is a new squad playing with new formation. We tried our best. We expected something more but I think we played well. We will try to play better next time.”
Meanwhile, before India men's team confirmed their fourth title of the Roll Ball World Cup, it was second time for their women's team who comfortably defeated Iran by 6-4 in the evening's final.
Indian women went 2-0 ahead within ten minutes following goals from Nair and Anjali before Iran pulled one back at the quarter-hour mark. At one stage of the game, India went 5-2 ahead and after that faced some resists from Iran but it eventually ended on the favour of the champions.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh hosted Roll Ball World Cup for the first time since the first one being held in 2011. The World Cup take place every two years with India winning all and Iran being runners-up in the last three editions in the men's section. Kenya became champions in the women's category in 2015.
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