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The Bengal Warriors were looking to round off their home leg with a win when they took on the Dabangs from Delhi. Dabang were coming off an impressive win against the Bengaluru Bulls while the Warriors were hurting from back-to-back losses to Haryana Steelers and U Mumba. After a cagey encounter, it was Delhi who finished strongly to force a tie as the Warriors let the game slip towards the end. It ended 31-31.
Earlier, the Puneri Paltan picked up a win over the Telugu Titans after having eviscerated them in the first half. The scoreline, in the end, showed a 42-37 win for the Paltan which was largely down to the Titans' comeback in the second half as an impressive all-round display from the Pune team was too much for Rahul Chaudhari's men on the night.
#1 Blink and you'll miss it
The Puneri Paltan started their game against the Telugu Titans like a house on fire. It took them just five minutes and 20 seconds to inflict the first All Out of the game and even more impressively, they did so without conceding a single point to their opponents. 9-0 just like that!
You would have thought that the Titans would brush that off and come back into the game, but they continued to look like a team in a slumber. The second All Out soon came with just 9 minutes and 45 seconds gone; 18-0 and still no points for the Titans.
They actually tackled a Pune raider during this sequence, but Farhad Milaghardan had actually crossed the mid-line and hence it was deemed a successful raid. Talk about things going wrong even when you do something right!
At this point, there was a genuine concern for the Titans and pretty soon and Pro Kabaddi was probably close to filing a missing-persons report on the entire team. They eventually picked up their first point in the 12th minute when Rahul Chaudhari earned a bonus even while getting tackled.
Had this been a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight; it was that bad. An absolute walloping is what it was.
That opening burst pretty much sealed the game then and there as the Paltan went on to have a 22-1 lead at one point with 14 minutes gone in the game. Despite a late rally, it was always going to be tough for the Titans to rally from that
#2 Will Telugu Titans at least now start looking past the names?
The Titans' uptick in performances began when Rakesh Kumar's injury-enforced absence turned out to be a blessing in disguise. They began to use Sombir who turned out to be a shark and has been the hero of two of their wins this season, against U Mumba and the Tamil Thalaivas.
Farhad Milaghardan began to shine as a useful all-rounder, helping out in raiding to go with solid defending. Vinod Kumar, the young, nimble-footed raider from Pondicherry was turning out to be reliable in key raids, much more than Vikas Kumar had been.
The Iranian Mohsen Maghsodlou, meanwhile, with his speed looked like the perfect third raider to have in the side.
Rakesh is now back from injury and somehow came straight back into the side. Vikas started as well. No Mohsen, no Vinod Kumar.
With their strongest performer of recent times, Sombir, struggling in the right corner, the Titans received a pasting at the hands of Puneri Paltan. It is unbelievable how poor this Titans team has looked at times this season. The frustrating part is that it is a situation that can be rectified with a few smart changes; changes that have already shown results.
Rahul Chaudhari is no exception. He may be the highest points scorer in the raid department in the history of Pro Kabaddi, but much of it is because he's a volume-scorer. The sheer number of raids he puts in helps him accumulate those points. And he's not the smartest raider around and that doesn't help when he's captain as well.
We are into the fifth season of Pro Kabaddi; teams now come solidly prepared and know all the tricks of the star players. And Rahul Chaudhari just continues to not be so smart with his raiding and Titans continue to rely on big-names purely based on their history.
We have seen almost every other team not hesitate to drop non-performing big names but not the Titans.
An unknown raider in Elangeswaran brought the Titans to life in this match with his Super Raid which took the score from 22-1 to 22-5 with a brilliant four-point raid. Mohsen was introduced in the second half and was so impressive, his speed and quickness proving tough for defences to deal with.
With the Paltan taking their foot off the gas in the second half and the Titans on the comeback trail, they actually managed to somehow whittle the lead down to just four points with a 14-1 run in five minutes towards the end of the match. They had the Paltan down to two men and with a minute and 30 seconds remaining, Rahul went in to raid.
The two men on the mat though were expert defenders in Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Girish Ernak. Rahul played the raid terribly and gave them too much of a chance and was brilliantly tackled by the Puneri duo.
It's this kind of terrible decision-making that has cost Rahul and the Titans over and over again this season. Will they turn the tide in time?
#3 Don't turn your back on Bhupi
While we were just talking about how Rahul Chaudhari isn't the smartest raider on the mat despite his superb skillset, Bhupender Singh, Bhupi as he is commonly known, is one of the smartest. The man is just an absolute treat to watch in action.
At 5-5 in a close game against Dabang Delhi, Bhupi looked to be on his way back with an empty raid. Delhi captain Meraj Sheykh seemed to have come to the same conclusion and turned around to have a quick chat with Rohit Baliyan. Bhupi had not crossed the mid-line though and seeing that Meraj had his back turned on him was quick to pounce and take a touch-point. Rohit Baliyan's attempts to drag his captain back proved futile.
We have seen this before this season and it was another Iranian who was the guilty party. Gujarat Fortunegiants' star defender Fazel Atrachali did likewise against the Haryana Steelers only to have Surender Nada sneak up and get him out during a seemingly harmless raid.
Great bit of thinking from Bhupi as he continues to show why he's such a wily and clever player out on the mat.
#4 The Warriors let it slip in the end, quite literally
After trading blows early on in the contest, the home side, the Bengal Warriors, had managed to establish an eight-point lead thanks to an All Out. 12-12 at half-time, the Warriors started the brighter to take a 21-13 lead with Maninder Singh continuing to dazzle and Delhi's own raiders having a below-par night.
With time remaining though, Dabang had every opportunity of making a comeback. And it started with Anand Patil - with 8 minutes remaining in the contest, he picked up a Super Raid narrowing the deficit to 25-20. Soon the Warriors found themselves reduced to just two men.
Meraj having an off-night managed to do what he does best in such situations though - effect the All Out getting rid of both men on his raid to give his side a 4-point raid and just like that it was now a 2-point game with just over 7 minutes left. Meraj though had to leave the mat due to an injury and did not return.
The Warriors kept pegging away and were doing just enough to keep their lead safe and led 31-27 with 125 seconds to go. That's when it started to go badly for the Warriors - Vinod Kumar got snapped up on a Do or Die raid, the experienced Ran Singh made a costly error to gift Anand Patil a point and another easy point on Delhi's next raid meant it was now a one-point game with just 14 seconds left.
Dabang did not allow Maninder to even cross the baulk line and put in a superb team tackle to keep him inches away from crossing back to tie the game up. Anand Patil played it safe with an empty final raid.
What was glaring was that the mistakes from the Warriors came from some of the most experienced hands. After two straight losses, this could have been a good win to arrest the slide. Instead it ended in a tie with Dabang Delhi clearly the happier of the two sides at the end. In the absence of two of their leading men in Abolfazl Maghsodlou and Meraj, Dabang still managed to show a lot of grit to come back in this one.
#5 Water is wet and Maninder is brilliant
He quietly goes about his job - no extravagant celebrations on picking up a point, no trash talking to the opponents, no outbursts of emotion on the court. Maninder Singh just keeps picking up points for his side in a cool and calm fashion inflicting much pain on his opponents in the process.
Having made such an impact in the inaugural season for the eventual champions Jaipur Pink Panthers, it seems like he's hardly been away after missing the four subsequent iterations through injury. He picked up his third straight Super 10 tonight and did not put a foot wrong as he once again led the charge for his side. He finished with 13 points from his 26 raids.
With Jang Kun Lee not providing enough support and Deepak Narwal being sorely missed, the onus has been on Maninder all the more. Yet he has shouldered the responsibility magnificently.
Maninder sits on 84 points for the season and just continues to impress with every outing. He's even added layers to his game, as he's started raiding from both sides as the games have gone by.
