Bengal Warriors’ unbeaten run in their home leg came to a halt after suffering a 31-37 loss against Dabang Delhi in the Pro Kabaddi League in Kolkata on Sunday.
Meraj Sheykh (13 points) was the star performer for Delhi as he produced a super raid in the last minute to lead his side to a win.
Maninder Singh top scored for Bengal Warriors with nine points. Both the teams have already sealed a spot in the playoffs. Dabang Delhi finished the league campaign with 68 points from their stipulated 22 matches.
Maninder got Bengal Warriors to a flying start with a super raid in the first minute to lead 3-0. Dabang Delhi recovered from the early shock and fought back to lead 4-3 after four minutes.
The first half saw both the teams going hard for victory. Maninder scored with a two-point raid in the 11th minute to give Bengal a 10-8 lead. A costly mistake by Bengal Warriors’ defence levelled the scores at 10-10 after 12 minutes.
Meraj helped Dabang Delhi inflict an all out with a two-point raid in the 16th minute. It took Bengal Warriors 19 minutes to score their first tackle point of the match. A lackadaisical defensive performance meant that Bengal Warriors went into the half-time break trailing at 14-20.
Bengal Warriors made a strong start to the second half. They inflicted an all out and scored eight points in six minutes to level the match at 22-22 after 26 minutes. With both the teams going neck and neck, there were a slew of empty raids as neither wanted to commit any silly errors.
In the 33rd minute Meraj came up with a two-point raid to give Dabang Delhi 26-24 lead. Meraj followed it up with another two-point raid as he completed his super 10 and give Delhi 28-24 lead.
Bengal Warriors forced a super tackle in the 37th minute to make it a one-point game, and forced a super tackle in the 39th minute to tie the match at 31-31. Meraj then produced a super raid in the last minute to win the match for Dabang Delhi.