Gujarat Giants beat Tamil Thalaivas 37-35 to register their third win in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 8. With a win in the 66th match of the season, Thalaivas have moved up to the sixth position in the points table, while Gujarat Giants are still at 10th position after taking five points.
After the first half, the team of Gujarat Giants was ahead 17-14. Tamil Thalaivas' were all out in the 18th minute due to which they fell behind in the first half. Mahendra Rajput of Gujarat Giants scored five points (four raiding and one tackle) with a fine all-round performance. Apart from him, Rakesh Narwal took four raiding points.
In the second half, Gujarat Giants held the lead till the 35th minute, but in the next minute, Tamil Thalaivas changed the course of the match by getting Giants all out and took the lead. Giants turned the match once more in the last minute by inflicting an all out on Tamil Thalaivas. However, Rajput gave the team victory by taking a point in the last raid.
For Gujarat Giants, Rajput took nine points in the match whereas Sunil scored five tackle points while hitting a high 5. For Thalaivas, Manjeet (12 points) completed Super 10 and Sagar (six points) completed High 5. For Giants, Ajinkya Pawar scored a total of 10 points in the match but still could not lead the team to victory.
Another last-raid thriller
In the second match, Bengal Warriors defeated Bengaluru Bulls 40-39 in a very unique development and reached the fourth position in the points table. Bulls also got a point from the match and moved up to second place. The Bulls were leading the match with a pretty good lead, but one raid changed the course of the match. Eight players were dismissed in the historic raid and the defending champions turned the match around from there.
After the first half, Bengal Warriors were ahead by one point and the score was 14-13. The star raiders Pawan Sehrawat and Maninder Singh from both the teams flopped and that is why the first half was dominated by the defenders. Bengal Warriors' defense frustrated the Bulls by throwing out Pawan continuously, while Saurabh Nandal did not let the team lag much in the match by taking three crucial points.
In the second half, Bengaluru Bulls made a good comeback in the 24th minute to take the lead by dismissing Bengal Warriors. However, the turning point in the match came when a mistake by the Bulls raider Mohammad Nabibaksh resulted in eight points (one bonus and seven technical). The Bulls were all out and they fell behind in the match .
Super 10 for Pawan Sehrawat (13 points) and good performances from Chandran Ranjit (eight raid points) helped the Bulls' fightback, but Bengal again did not let go off the lead and won the match by one point. For Bengal Warriors, Maninder took nine points (eight raids and one tackle), Sukesh Hegde took seven raiding and Abozar Mighani took three tackle points.
