Gujarat Fortunegiants maintained their perfect start to the season with a 31-26 win over Dabang Delhi to go top of the points table at the DOME, NSCI in Mumbai on Thursday. In a game of the unbeaten teams, Gujarat came from behind to end Delhi’s streak and push them to the third spot in the table.
Gujarat’s Sachin Tanwar picked up two points in the early exchanges to help the Fortunegiants open up a 6-1 lead inside five minutes. However, Dabang Delhi defence came to the fore tackling the opponents’ top two raiders in consecutive raids to reduce the deficit to just two points.
Gujarat’s GB More though continued to pluck away points in the duo’s absence as last season’s runners-up stretched the lead to 8-4.
Just when it seemed Gujarat would run away with the game, Naveen Kumar scored a two-point raid to send the in-form More and captain Sunil Kumar to the bench in the 8th minute.
Naveen then made two successful raids to leave Fortunegiants on the brink of an all-out which was later completed when Joginder Narwal tackled substitute Abolfazl Maghsodlou.
Delhi led 14-11 at the break to give Gujarat coach Manpreet Singh some thinking to do at the interval but his half-time team talk produced instant results.
Their defence tightened up and raider Rohit Gulia scored three points in two raids to pull Gujarat back level at 16-16.
Naveen then pulled Delhi back in front with a two-point raid, but Gulia replicated his heroics to score his second two-point raid of the game to put Gujarat ahead in the game.
Naveen’s dismissal then gave Gujarat a sniff of an all-out, but a super tackle on Tanwar levelled the score again with 10 minutes on the clock.
However, More then displayed his all-round skills to score two raid points and a tackle point in three straight raids as Delhi were all-out.
With seven minutes to go, Gujarat managed the game well to defend their five-point advantage and record their third straight win in the competition.
There was just one game in Pro Kabaddi on Thursday as it hosted the final of the Mumbai leg of KBD Juniors – an inter-school kabaddi competition in every city – which was won by Andhra Education Society who emerged victorious after a hard-fought 23-20 win over IES Modern School. Shivam Yadav top scored with 11 points, while Om Bandre scored 4 points for the winning team.
The Mumbai leg will conclude on Friday with U Mumba’s clash against Gujarat Fortunegiants after Telugu Titans’ take on UP Yoddha in the opening game of the day.