Haryana Steelers’ captain and left-corner defender Surender Nada is a great crowd-puller displaying his skilful guard work; he does not give an impression that his brain works overtime, but he is always there in the nick of time to bring his two strong hands into play for an ankle-hold tackle or pouncing on the opponent once his colleagues Mohit Chhillar or Ashish Chhokar make the first move.
Coming into the fourth match of the Vivo ProKabaddi in eight days and against Tamil Thailavas, Nada demonstrated his talent to earn half a dozen points and keep his side ahead at 13-10, but a side without a daring and smart raider conceded a lot to the Thalaivas, who, spearheaded by the tall and lithe raider K. Prapanjan, did well to force a 25-all tie, a fourth such outcome in the ongoing league.
One-man show
It was a virtually a one-man show for both teams; Nada putting a big show for the Steelers and Prapanjan, shrugging off a few setbacks and mounting pressure on the rival defence. Nada scored in all seven points, and Prapanjan as many.
Fortunes swung in a tantalising manner in the last three minutes with Amit Hooda playing the supporting role with six points; he scored a timely super tackle (the Steelers had only three to defend) to actually put his team ahead 24-23, but with one minute and twenty seconds to go, Ashish Chhokar pushed to raid by Nada, came back with two touch points for his the Steelers to lead by a solitary point at 25-24.
Thalaivas did not field its captain and out-of-form raider, Ajay Thakur, once he was ejected off the mat in the 12th minute of the first half. It opted for the giant-like South Korean Dong Geon Lee and he scored the last point crossing the bonus-point line.
With the match going neck and neck, and with a little over two minutes remaining, the teams called for time-outs with the Steelers leading 23-22 before Hooda’s super tackle. It was a well-contested match with Nada showing his class and Prapanjan using his long limbs to good effect.
The result: Tamil Thalaivas 25 tied with Haryana Steelers 25.
