The two previous games between the Giants and the Thailavas had ended in a draw, so a close contest was expected from this game as well. In what was a strange day at Vivo Pro Kabaddi season 8, GG emerged out victorious by a 37-35 margin.
The game didn’t disappoint as it was evenly poised for the most part of the match, but it did have some exciting moments. The first of which came in when Ajinkya Pawar came in as a substitute for Thailavas and saved his team from an all-out in the initial minutes of the match.
Gujarat Giants, though, kept picking up crucial points and eventually managed to give an all-out in the last three minutes of the first half. This gave them a lead of three points as the first half ended 17-14.
In the second half, the Thailavas were trailing for most of the half, but as the half went into the last five minutes, Thailavas gave an all-out to the Giants, courtesy of a four-point raid by Manjeet, who completed his third Super 10 of the season and ended the game with 13 raid points overall.
Some high praise for our 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐡! 🙌#GarjegaGujarat #Adani #vivoProKabaddi #CHEvGG @suhailchandhok pic.twitter.com/dRQTyGO2LX
— Gujarat Giants (@GujaratGiants) January 21, 2022
It seemed that Thailavas were on the cusp of a victory, but then Giants coach Manpreet Singh sent in his trump card in the form of Pardeep Kumar, who earned four points in two raids, including a super raid, in the last 80 seconds of the game which turned the game on its head for the Giants.
Manjeet was the last man standing for Thailavas when the game went into the last minute, with the scorecard reading 33-32 in favour of the Thailavas, but Giants gave a last-minute all out to the Thailavas to get one-point lead. But the last 30 seconds of the game saw the most dramatic session of Kabaddi in the season as the Thailavas were not ready to give up just yet, they didn’t let Mahendra Rajput cross the bog line and got the crucial point to equal the score.
But Gujrat were not satisfied with the tie, and hence they too didn’t let Manjeet get away. Sunil tackled Manjeet, thereby completing his High five. In the last raid of the game, Thailavas tried their best to equal the score, but they couldn’t tackle Rajput this time around. The final score read 37-35 in favour of the Giants.
The teams could not be separated either on raid points or tackle points. The difference was the second all-out inflicted by the Giants in the last two minutes of the game.
Sagar’s effort went in vain as he scored the most tackle points for the Thailavas. Even after this win though, the Giants remained at the 10th spot in the points table.
Bengal Warriors took revenge on Bengaluru Bulls: 40-39
In the last fixture between these two sides, the Bulls had won the game by just a solitary point.
It was a game between two heavyweight raiders. The season’s highest raid point scorer Pawan Kumar Sherawat competed against Maninder, who had scored nine consecutive Super 10s coming into the fixture. But in the first half, none of them fired as both could manage only two raid points each for their respective sides.
Their inability to score raid points reflected in the score at the end of the first half as it ended 14-13 in favour of the Warriors.
In the second half, Pawan got going and completed his 9th super 10 of the season. They also gave an all-out to the Bengal Warriors. They got a 7-point lead and were looking all set to give a second all out when the most bizarre thing happened in the history of the league.
Nabibaksh was the last man standing, and he went for the raid, he got the bonus point, and then he was tackled by the Bulls defence or so the umpires and the Bulls team thought. Nabi took a review. It was more of a gamble than anything else. But what it showed changed the whole complexion of the game.
The review showed that Chandran Ranjit had gotten himself lobby out and then Nabibaksh went into the lobby without touching any of the Bulls players. The whole defence then pounced on Nabi. All of them, therefore, were considered out. Nabibaksh got the bonus point, but Bengal Warriors got seven technical points through a single raid.
Pawan Kumar Sherawat clearly could not understand what had just happened with his team. He then took a review of the review, which clearly indicated a brain fade moment for Sherawat. Bulls, who were leading by 7 points till that raid, got all out in the very next raid and gave the Warriors a lead. The Bulls could not recover from this bizarre play and eventually lost the game by a solitary point.
Here is how the points table looks like at the end of Day 3️⃣0️⃣ of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 💥#PKL2021 #ProKabaddiLeague pic.twitter.com/zOjmLBeX9i
— Sportskeeda (@Sportskeeda) January 20, 2022
This win has now put the Warriors in the fourth position in the points table. While the Bulls leapfrogged Patna to second from the solitary point gained because they lost by less than a margin of seven points.
