Home favourites Puneri Paltan decimated table toppers Bengal Warriors 49-19 before Dabang Delhi got the better of Telugu Titans in the 2023 Pro Kabaddi League on Saturday.
The Paltan army, who went down to the Haryana Steelers on Friday night, never let the opponent raiders settle and their 24 tackle points is now a new record for a team in a single PKL match.
The home side did not let the occasion of facing the table toppers deter them from a perfect start. Their excellent defending got Maninder Singh in his first raid before Pankaj Mohite’s successful two-point raid gave the Paltan an early lead.
However, the mighty Maninder can hardly be kept out of the action. The Warriors captain, continuing his form from their record-breaking win over Patna Pirates, equalled the score with a super raid, proving why he is one of the best raiders in the game.
Despite this, the Paltan headed into the strategic time-out with a slender 7-6 advantage and built on it with an excellent super tackle to grab three points off Maninder once again.
The Warriors buckled after their slow start and upped the ante in the final minutes of the first half. A second super raid in the game for Maninder eliminated Abinesh, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh and Pankaj Mohite, but Mohit Goyat and Aslam Inamdar’s never give up attitude got them two consecutive super tackles.
Such was their defensive prowess in front of a boisterous home crowd that the Pune team managed 12 tackle points and just 6 raid points at the end of the first half, adding pressure on the Warriors with the score reading 20-12.
The side from Kolkata continued to be pegged back and were wiped out early in the second half as the Paltan kept up their phenomenal form.
Such was the domination of the Puneri men on the night that Maninder Singh, who got 15 points in the last game, was silenced for much of the match.
For every point that the Warriors managed to score, the Paltan had the perfect answer. Left stunned by the all-round ability and the mat presence of the Puneri Paltan, the Warriors fell to a second all out late in the game, effectively ending any chances of a win for the former champions.
Dabang Delhi beat Telugu Titans
Later, Dabang Delhi registered their second win of the season with a 51-40 win over the Telugu Titans. While the high-profile raiding duo of Pawan Sehrawat and Naveen Goyat duly obliged with 14 points apiece, the real star was Ashu Malik, whose 16 points proved to be the difference between the two sides.
The opening passage of play was true to what was billed as a battle between the star raiders of each team as Goyat and Sehrawat went toe to toe with every raid. It was the Delhi captain though, who was getting back more touch points, and soon enough Delhi inflicted a first all out of the game to take a 11-3 lead.
Looking down the barrel, the Titans turned things around in a blistering passage of play, where they erased a nine-point deficit in a mere five minutes.
The pace of the game was relentless and yet again Delhi hit back. A three-point super raid by Goyat started a second Titans collapse with mere minutes remaining for the break. It came at a cost though as Goyat went off injured for the rest of the half — having logged ten points in the matchs already.
Despite his absence, Dabang Delhi inflicted a second all out to take a commanding eight-point lead into the break.
The Titans piled on the pressure in the second half, and despite Naveen’s return to the mat, had Delhi on the ropes within the first 10 minutes itself. A super tackle by Ashu Malik on Sehrawat staved off the inevitable, but soon enough the Titans got a second all out of their own to cut the lead to five points.
Malik then took the mantle for Delhi’s revival and soon enough was logging points with every raid, completing a super 10 of his own. His brilliance helped Delhi inflict a third all out to eventually wrap up an 11-point victory.