Senior National Kabaddi Men: Naveen Kumar stars with 16 raid points on Day 1

Services' Naveen Kumar bagged 16 raid points against Kerala C. Direction on the opening day of the 67th Senior National Kabaddi Championship at the Poornima University in Jaipur on Monday to guide his team to a convincing victory.

Nine matches in the men's category were played on the opening day of the tournament, which saw as many as five Super 10s and nine High 5s.

Naveen Kumar's 16 raid points came in 20 raid attempts and included a Super Raid early on. He managed to complete his Super 10 in the first half of the match to ensure his team was in control of the match early on.

Other stars of the day were Harendra Kumar, Saif Ali and Vishal Bhardwaj, who all bagged High 5s with a 7-tackle point effort each.

Here's a summary of the results from the opening day of the 67th Senior National Kabaddi Championship:

Rajasthan vs West Bengal

Rajasthan scored a massive 57 points, the highest tally of the day, as they dominated West Bengal to limit them to a paltry 11 points to register a 46-point victory. Brijendra Chaudhary was the chief architect of the victory with his Super 10 comprising 10 raid points and 2 bonus points. He also managed two tackle points to take his match tally to 14. He was ably supported by Kamal Kishor, Sachin and Pradeep Kumar in the raiding department.

Gujarat vs Jharkhand

Gujarat registered a 29-point win over Jharkhand thanks to a Super 10 effort that allowed the team to score 39 on the day. For Jharkhand, Rohit scored half the team's tally of 10 with five raid points.

Services vs Kerala C. Direction

Naveen Kumar lit up for Services with 16 raid points, with the star raider pillared by Nitin Tomar's nine points and Rohit Kumar's seven as the team piled 51 points on the board. Kerala C. Direction were left short by 18 points as they ended up with 33. Athul MS helped lead the attack with 13 raid points didn't prove enough on the day.

Maharashtra vs Jammu & Kashmir

Maharashtra beat Jammu & Kashmir 47-24 with Pankaj Mohite leading the charge for the victors with 11 points, along with Tushar Patil's 9. Shubham Shinde claimed a High 5 to give the defence a semblance that J&K could match on the day. Harshdeep Singh managed 11 points for Jammu & Kashmir, and while their defence was solid, he couldn't find enough support in the raiding department.

Haryana vs Tamil Nadu

In one of the closest matches of the day, Haryana went down 31-37 against Tamil Nadu. Pardeep Narwal could only manage 5 points in the match as defender Amit Sheoran took the lead for Haryana by claiming a High 5 while also picking up 2 bonus points. Ram Kumar's 9 raid points made the difference for Tamil Nadu with a trio of defenders, M. Abishek's 6 tackle points, E Subash's 5 and Sajan C's 4 tackle points upstaging Sheoran's efforts.

Uttar Pradesh vs Vidharbha

Uttar Pradesh dazzled in their tournament opener defeating Vidharbha 55-15. Rahul Chaudhari scored 8 points and substitute Azad Singh managed a Super 10 for the victors while Harendra Kumar scored 7 tackle points in just 8 tackle attempts, as Uttar Pradesh outclassed Vidharbha with an outstanding all-round display.

Karnataka vs Madhya Pradesh

Karnataka beat Madhya Pradesh 42-27 thanks to Prathap S's 9 points and Sukesh Hegde's 8. But it was Pavan TR's 6 tackle points that gave the victors the edge. For Madhya Pradesh, Saif Ali managed 7 tackle points but the team lacked in the raiding department to make a difference.

Uttaranchal vs Orissa

Sumit Kumar was the highest scorer in the match with 9 points with the remaining scores spread across in both teams as Uttaranchal beat Orissa 45-23. It was the raiding department where Uttaranchal got the edge, scoring twice as many as Orissa.

Himachal Pradesh vs Manipur

Ace defender Vishal Bhardwaj managed 7 tackle points and scored another 3 raid points to star in Himachal Pradesh's win over Manipur. He was supported by Surender Singh, who recorded a High 5 of his own. Between them, they scored 12 of the 15 tackle points of the team with the victor's raiding efforts evenly distributed within the team, which saw Ajay Thakur bag 3 raid points in 5 raid attempts.

Where to follow the 67th Senior National Kabaddi Championship

The 67th Senior National Kabaddi Championship will continue on Tuesday. Fixtures, schedules and live matchcentre for both the men and women categories are available here.