Jaipur: A superb defensive performance laid the foundations for Ice Divas first win of the Women’s Kabaddi Challenge against the Storm Queens. The Ice Divas defenders kept the Storm Queen raiders quiet all night whereas the Divas skipper Abhilasha Mhatre scored nine raid points.

It was a cautious start for both teams as they were slowly getting their feet in the gameand after five minutes the score was 2-2. Ice Divas captain Abhilasha Mhatre opened her account in the fifth minute and got rid of Priyanka Negi with a toe touch. MeenalJadhav followed up with another raid as the Ice Divas led 4-2. Storm Queens scored their two raid points with Priyanka Negi conducting a successful raid as they trailed 5-7 with five minutes to go in the first half.

Storm Queens forced a super tackle in the 11th minute of the first half as Ice Divas led 8-7. Storm Queens scored only three raid points in the first half as Ice Diva went into the break with a slender 10-9 lead. Key raiders TejaswiniBai and Sakshi Kumari failed to score a single raid point for the Storm Queens in the first half.

Sakshi Kumari opened her account with a do-or-die raid in the third minute of the second half as Storm Queens led 11-10. Ice Divas made a super tackle count in the same minute to restore a two-point lead and led 13-11. Ice Divas defence did a fine job as with 10 minutes to go they had accumulated 10 tackle points.

The first all out of the game came in the 12th minute of second half as Ice Divas led 21-10. With Storm Queens captain Tejaswini Kumar struggling, they faded in the second half as Ice Divas ran out comfortable winners in the end.