Bengal Warriors captain Maninder Singh made a super raid in the final minute to help the hosts share honours with Gujarat Fortunegiants 25-25 in the opening match of the Kolkata leg of the ProKabaddi League (PKL) at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
With Fortunegiants employing a solid defensive plan, Warriors faced resistance from the start. The latter managed to nose ahead in the first half, thanks to successful raids by Maninder (five points) and K. Prapanjan (four). Warriors enjoyed a slender 15-13 advantage at the break as Fortunegiants’ Sonu Jaglan scored five points to keep his side in contention. The visitors’ smart tackling skills also prevented an ‘all-out’.
After the break, Fortunegiants found another solid raider in Sachin Tanwar who powered the team ahead 19-16.
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Warriors’ defence made a couple of successful tackles to make it 20-20, but the Gujarat side, in no mood to let the advantage slip, took a 25-23 lead with less than a minute remaining.
Maninder, however, caught two Fortunegiants defenders and forced a tie. He was the most successful raider, picking up nine points.
Steelers all the wayADVERTISEMENT
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Haryana Steelers put up a dominant performance to down Dabang Delhi 47-25 in the second match. Steelers made a remarkable turnaround in the opening half when Naveen’s super raid in the ninth minute saw him score three points.
He was the lone Steelers player, facing five Delhi defenders, when he made the raid.
Vikas Kale made a super tackle on Delhi’s next raid as Steelers took a 12-10 lead and never looked back after that.
The results: Bengal Warriors 25 (Maninder Singh 9, K. Prapanjan 4) drew with Gujarat Fortunegiants 25 (Sonu Jaglan 6, Sachin Tanwar 6); Haryana Steelers 47 (Vikas Kandola 10, Prashanth Kumar Rai 10) bt Dabang Delhi 25 (Naveen Kumar 11).