Meraj Sheykh’s single-handed effort helped Dabang Delhi KC win a cliffhanger against Tamil Thalaivas 30-29 in a ProKabaddi League match at the Arena by Transstadia on Thursday.
Delhi captain Sheykh was the clear-cut winner of the GFG ‘moment-of-the-match’ when, against all odds, he not onky wriggled out of a chain tackle and won three massive points for his side to convert a deficit of 27-28 to a lead of 30-28, but also left the Thalaivas’ captain Ajay Thakur as the lone man standing in defence.
After a lacklustre showing in the previous matches, Thakur made amends winning 14 points.
With 62 seconds remaining, the Chennai side would have hoped for a second win, but Sheykh’s magnificent raid stunned the rival camp; Sheykh tallied 9 points (8 touch and 1 bonus).
Delhi made a crucial substitution bringing in the second Iranian Abolfazl Maghsodlou before the first half. The tall and strong all-rounder turned out to be the game-changer, tallying 11 points (4 touch points, 5 bonus and 2 tackle points).
Sheykh — with his side leading by a point opted for time to lapse during his last raid — would have been delighted with the result because, at the stroke of half time, he conceded super tackle points to the Thaliavas’ D. Pradab and Vijay Kumar. Usually he would have won a 1-2 situation hands down , but after a desperate attempt to reach one of the last two Thalaivas defenders, he became a victim himself for the teams to be tied at 12. While Thakur held centre-stage, his colleague K. Prapanjan (1 raid point) was not given leeway by the rival corners and Thalaivas paid a heavy price for his absence from play at regular intervals.
The result: Dabang Delhi KC 30 bt Tamil Thalaivas 29 .
