The Bengaluru Bulls and the Gujarat Giants secured important wins at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in Delhi on Sunday in their quest to qualify for the Pro Kabaddi League playoffs. While the Bulls beat U Mumba 42-37, the Giants beat the Tamil Thalaivas 42-30.
For the Bulls, Sushil bagged 10 points and Akshit got eight points while U Mumba raider Jai Bhagwan’s bagged 10 points himself.
U Mumba started brightly but the Bulls did not give them much leeway. The Bulls prevented all out chances on two separate occasions with excellent super tackles by left corner Parteek and all rounder Ran Singh. But their resilience was broken by U Mumba raider Jai Bhagwan, who got his team’s first all out of the match.
U Mumba had to work hard to keep the Bulls at bay. Akshit’s super raid was key to his team’s revival, and then they got the U Mumba side all out, reducing the deficit to just two points heading into the second half with the score reading 22-24.
Sombir kept his good form going to reach five points, but the U Mumba raiders were unable to match the performance of their defenders in the second half. This gave their opponents a chance to take the lead with raider Sushil upping the ante. He was ably supported by Ran Singh, who also reached five points.
The topsy-turvy nature of the match continued to the very end. But an Parteek tackled Amirmohammad Zafardanesh to give the Bulls an all out. This was enough to give the Bulls the lead, which they maintained to the very end to seal the victory.
Giants thump Thalaivas
Rakesh (14 points) and Rohit Gulia (nine points) were the stars for the Gujarat Giants as they broke their losing rut with 42-30 win against the Tamil Thalaivas.
Right from the start the Giants were in control of proceedings, for once their raiders outdoing the defence department throughout the first half. Soon enough they had the Thalaivas scrambling on the mat, and despite Sagar's super tackle to stave off a heavy deficit, it wasn't enough.
The Giants inflicted the first all out of the game with seven minutes of the first half left, one in which Rakesh and Gulia had run riot with impunity. They went into the break leading 18-13.
They maintained an iron-clad grip on the game through the second half and within five minutes of the restart had inflicted a second all out to take a big lead. The Thalaivas slowly attempted to build some momentum back and got an all out of their own with seven minutes of the game to go, to reduce the gap to 10 points.
Unbelievably, considering the Giants' dominance, Fazel Atrachali only managed to get his first point of the game with four minutes to play, at a time when the Thalaivas had suddenly seized the momentum. That one tackle halted it, and the Giants woke up to reestablish their dominance. Rakesh provided one more final highlight for the evening with a multi-point raid, to ensure the Giants took a huge win.