Bengal Warriors scored a thumping, 48-17 win over UP Yoddha in the league phase of the Vivo ProKabaddi League Season-7 at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.
It was a remarkable performance by PKL debutant Mohammad Nabibakhsh, who overcame a false start when he was ‘self-out’ with his first raid, to cap a Super-10 from 11 raids. And, with captain Maninder Singh and K. Prapanjan joining the party, all the UP defence could do was watch hopelessly as the rivals picked points at will, especially in the second session.
For the losers, Monu Goyat was the main scorer with five points from 14 raids.
Steady start
Earlier, it was a slow and steady start by Bengal outfit which overcame an early deficit with UP Yodha actually leading 3-0 to start with.
Maninder, who was not as flamboyant as the other big names in his raids, was efficient with four points in the first half.
The Bengal defence, with Rinku Narwal and Baldev Siingh being exceptional, was equal to the task backing theeir raiders, though Jeeva Kumar’s over-enthusiastic tackles saw him concede a couple of points.
First all-out
Just when it looked to be a close contest with the scores tied six-all at one stage in first-half, Bengal scored the first all-out of the game to widen the lead to 11-7 and soon Maninder scored two points including one bonus to further increase the lead to 13-8.
It was then Shrikant Jhadav’s turn to slip and concede a ‘self-out’ to the disappointment of the UP camp. But on the other hand, K. Prapanjan of Bengal was good in raiding to pick a couple of points to help Bengal lead 17-9 at the break.
On resumption, Bengal went on the offensive, scoring 18 points in the first nine minutes which included the second all-out and also a super raid by Nabibakhsh fetching three points.
With Bengal scoring the fourth all-out with Nabibakhsh being the star performer and defender Baldev Singh finishing with seven points from eight tackles, including a High-five, UP was nowhere in the game.
Dabang pips Titans
The Desai brothers — Siddharth and Suraj, with the latter scoring the highest points (18) for a debutant in the PKL history — came good for Telugu Titans but it was not enough as the team suffered it’s third straight defeat, losing to Delhi Dabang 33-34.
For the winner, raider Naveen Kumar scored 14 points from 20 raids.
The result: Bengal Warriors bt UP Yoddha 48-17; Dabang Delhi bt Telugu Titans 34-33.
Thursday’s match: Dabang Delhi vs Tamil Thalaivas, 7.30 p.m .
