The 58th game of the Pro Kabaddi League 8 turned out to be yet another thriller as The Jaipur Pink Panthers and Tamil Thailavas played the 12th tie of the campaign with the match ending at 31-31. This was Thailavas fifth tie of the season, most by any team until now.
The Panthers did well to hold onto a tie as Thailavas had taken a slender lead of two points in the dying stages of the game. But the last raid proved to be the most crucial raid of the game.
Manjeet went for the final raid for the Thailavas, which was a do or die one in a super tackle situation. He thought he had secured a point as he went into the lobby confidently only to find out that the umpires had ruled in favour of the Pink Panthers. The match ended in a dramatic fashion top.
The Jaipur Pink Panthers had a lead of 17-13 after the first half, but Thailavas made a good comeback in the 2nd half. The match was neck to neck for the most part of the match as both the teams focused on their defence.
There was little to separate both the teams in tackle points as the Thailavas scored 11 tackle points in comparison to Panthers 12 tackle points. In the raiding department, the Thailavas did better as they scored 16, whereas the Panthers secured 11.
The most successful defenders for Thailavas were Sagar and PO Surjeet Singh, with four tackle points, while for the Panthers, their captain Sandeep Dhull scored a high five.
There wasn’t a single Super 10 in the game. Manjeet got nine raid points for the Thailavas, while Arjun Deswal brought six raid points for Panthers.
The game also had a moment of brilliance when PO Surjeet Singh made a solo tackle on Arjun Deswal. This was the 2nd such incident in the league.
Patna Pirates outperform Bengaluru Bulls by 7 points
The Pirates beat the Bulls 38-31 in the 59th game of the league. The Pirates defence returned to its absolute best as it outscored the Bulls defence by 17-13. Sunil was the star defender for Patna as he collected nine tackle points, the most in a single game in the league so far. He was ably supported by Neeraj and Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, who got three tackle points each.
The game began on a fast note as Pawan Kumar Sherawat started in a super quick fashion as he scored a Super 10 in the first fifteen minutes of the game itself. The Bulls were ahead by 8-4 in the initial few minutes of the game.
But once Pawan got out in his raid, Bulls could not revive him, and Patna inflicted an all-out and took a good lead. In fact, in the first half Bulls defence couldn’t do much at all as they could only manage three tackle points.
In the second half, while the Bulls defence did well, Pawan could not score a single raid point. Mahendra Singh and Saurabh Nandal earned six tackle points each, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
In the raiding department, while Pawan got no support, Sachin was supported by Guman Singh, who played as a second raider as Monu Goyat was given a rest. Sachin got eight raid points while Guman Singh earned six.
Patna now stand second on the table with 39 points.
