Kabaddi Rules Explained: How a Match Works, Raid by Raid

The kabaddi rules fit on one page, and the sport still produces more late drama than games with a hundred-page rulebook. One attacker crosses into enemy territory chanting, tries to tag as many defenders as he can, and races back before they drag him down or his breath runs out. Everything else in kabaddi — the lines on the mat, the bonus, the all out, the do-or-die raid — grows out of that single contest. This guide walks through a match the way a new fan sees it: the mat, the raid, the points, and the pressure plays that decide close games.

The Basics: Two Teams, One Mat

Under the kabaddi rules, two teams meet on a rectangular mat split by a midline. Seven players from each side are on the mat at any time, with substitutes waiting on the bench. A match runs over two halves of 20 minutes, with the teams swapping ends at half-time. The teams take turns attacking: one sends a single raider into the other half, then the other side sends one back. Attack and defence swap with every raid, so every player has to do both jobs.

The kabaddi rules draw three lines on the raider’s half of the mat. The midline is where he starts from and must return to. The baulk line sits further into the defending half, and the bonus line sits deeper still, close to the end line. Where the raider’s feet go in relation to those lines decides whether his raid counts and what it is worth.

How a Raid Works

The raid starts when the raider crosses the midline into the defending half. From that moment he must chant “kabaddi” out loud, again and again, in a single breath. The chant is not theatre — it is the kabaddi rules’ most famous demand: he must prove he is raiding without taking a fresh breath in enemy territory. If the chant stops or the referee hears it break before he gets home, the raid is over and he is out.

The raider has 30 seconds on the raid clock. For the raid to count, he must cross the baulk line, or make contact with a defender, before he comes back. A raider who drifts in and returns without crossing the baulk line and without a touch has not raided legally, and the point goes to the defence. Once he touches a defender, the raid is live in a second way: the strips at the sides of the mat, the lobbies, come into play, and the raider can use them in the chase that follows.

If the raider gets back across the midline safely, he scores. If the defenders stop him — hold him down, drag him back, or pin him until the chant dies — he is out and the defence scores instead, exactly as the kabaddi rules prescribe. An out player leaves the mat and sits in the sitting block until his team revives him, which happens when his team scores a point of its own.

How Points Are Scored

A raider scores one touch point for every defender he touches and then escapes. Under the kabaddi rules, tag two defenders and get home, and the raid is worth two points, with both defenders out. A raid worth three or more points is a super raid, the play that swings matches in a few seconds. The defence scores a tackle point when it stops the raider, and the raider is out.

The bonus point is the extra route. When six or seven defenders are on the mat, the bonus line is active. A raider who puts a foot across the bonus line and returns safely scores one bonus point, without touching anyone. It rewards nerve: the bonus line sits deep in defence territory, close to the end line, and a raider hunting it is within reach of every defender. With five or fewer defenders on the mat, the bonus line switches off.

The heaviest scoring play is the all out. When a team loses all seven of its players, the other side collects the points for the players put out plus extra points for the all out itself, and the beaten team then revives: all seven players come back on the mat and play restarts. An all out turns a close match into a runaway, which is why teams defending with two or three men left play the safest kabaddi of the night.

Super Tackle and Do-or-Die: The Pressure Plays

A defence reduced to three or fewer players is not helpless — it gets a weapon of its own. If a defence of three men or fewer stops the raider, that is a super tackle, worth 2 points instead of the usual one. The super tackle is why a team down to its last defenders still attacks the raider rather than hiding: one stop scores double and revives a teammate.

The do-or-die raid attacks the opposite problem: a team that stops raiding. A raid in which nobody scores, from either side, is an empty raid. After two empty raids in a row, the third raid is compulsory — a do-or-die raid. The raider must score a point in it. If he comes back empty, or is tackled, he is out and the defence takes the point. The rule exists to kill time-wasting, and late in a close match it forces the leading team’s raiders to attack a set defence with the whole game watching. The official record of these rules is held on the official Pro Kabaddi League site.

How These Rules Fit the PKL

The Pro Kabaddi League plays these rules across a league-and-playoffs season with twelve franchises. In Season 12, each team played 18 league matches, 108 in the league stage, with 9 postseason matches on top — 117 matches in all. League results fed the table under the Season 12 system of 2 points for a win and 0 for a loss, with score difference breaking ties. The clubs themselves are profiled on the Pro Kabaddi teams hub, and the standings the rules produced are on the PKL Points Table. Season 13’s start is reported for late December 2026, with fixtures and format To Be Announced — the schedule picture is tracked on the PKL Schedule homepage.

Kabaddi Rules — Frequently Asked Questions