Bengaluru Bulls, the season 6 champions, toppled Tamil Thalaivas 38-30 on Day 3 of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 held at The Sheraton Grand, Whitefield Bengaluru in a cracker of a contest on Friday (December 24).
Pawan Sehrawat picked up 9 points and was ably assisted by his raiding partners Chandran Ranjit (7 points) and Bharat (5 points) as the Bulls recovered from their Day 1 loss to win the Southern Derby against Tamil Thalaivas and gifted themselves a pre-Christmas gift.
The first half kicked off with both defences looking strong and keeping a high line. Bulls’ Pawan Sehrawat and Chandran Ranjit struggled to escape the strong grips of Thalaivas defenders. At the other end, K Prapanjan and Manjeet had a tough time against the Bulls defence left by Aman in the left corner.
The game’s changing point in the first half was provided by Bharat, who took over the raiding duties of the Bulls after their top 2 struggled. His lanky army caused troubles in the Thalaivas defence and helped the Bulls secure an ALL OUT in the 18th minute. The first half ended 19-13 with Bengaluru in the lead.
Kabaddi is a game of momentum and Tamil Thalaivas ensured it remained with them in the early minutes of the first half. Surjeet Singh and Sahil Singh produced stellar tackles on the Bulls raiders as raider Manjeet helped Thalaivas secure an ALL OUT in the 4th minute of the half and take the lead.
The teams traded blows and the scores were tied at 21-25 with just 10 minutes in the match. But a combination of successful tackling and brave raiding by Chandran Ranjit did the star work and gave the Bulls an ALL OUT with 7 minutes remaining to open up a 5-point lead.
Despite Bhavani Rajput’s valiant efforts with his raids, there was no comeback for Thaliavas as they were left in lurch. Bulls defender Saurabh Nandal secured his High 5 (5 tackle points) in the last move of the game.
Bengal Warriors put Gujarat Giants on leash
Bengal Warriors stifled Gujarat Giants 31-28 in the 9th match of the Pro Kabaddi League played at Sheraton Grant Whitefield in Bangalore. Rakesh Narwal of Gujarat Giants was the highest raid point scorer in this match, scoring 12 points in 6 raids, including a tackle and 5 bonus points. Apart from this, Girish Ernak and Ravinder Pahal made many excellent tackles. On the other hand Maninder Singh scored 8 raid points for Bengal Warriors, while Ismail Nabibaksh, Rohit and Akash scored 4-4 points. Thanks to this all-round game, Bengal Warriors registered their second consecutive win by defeating Gujarat Giants.
