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The Bengaluru Bulls got the better of Patna Pirates 31-26 despite a late resurgence from the Rakesh Kumar-led side. After the home side, Bengal Warriors, sneaked through to win in the last second against defending champions Jaipur Pink Panthers, the Netaji Indoor Stadium saw a dominating performance by the Bulls.
The first points of the second match of the day were also the first points of the tournament for India and Patna Pirates captain Rakesh Kumar, who tagged his counterpart Manjeet Chhillar. After the first 4 minutes, Patna led the Bulls 3-0 after Ravi Dalal returned with a successful raid getting the oldest player of the tournament, Dharmaraj Cheralathan, out in the process.
The Bulls charged back with the help of a strong Manjeet Chhillar tackle on Sandeep Narwal and a fast raid by Rajesh Mondal. They carried on their good form and established a decent cushion leading 9-5 after 12 minutes. A minute later, they completed the all out on the Pirates as they extended their lead to 7 points.
Star of the last match, Sandeep Narwal was having an off day as he got caught again in the 18th minute and Rakesh Kumar followed suit as the Bulls turned on the style. Both teams played it safe in the final few minutes as the team from the capital of Karnataka went in the break leading 16-8 against Patna Pirates.
Too little, too late for the Pirates
The unrelenting Bulls started the second half where they had left off in the first and in the first four minutes had all of the Patna players out after Joginder Narwal caught Sandeep Narwal. Despite Ajay Thakur’s absence, the scoreline read 23-10 in the Bulls favour, who were beaten by the Pirates in the 3rd-place play-off last season.
Manjeet Chhillar was a rock at the back as neither Rakesh Kumar nor Ravi Dalal or not even the effervescent Ravi Dalal were having any luck during their raids. The all-rounder from Nizampur had 3 raid points and 5 touch points after 30 minutes of the match to put his name top of the line for the man of the match award.
Rakesh Kumar, who also doubles up as the coach of the Pirates, sent in the Narwals – Deepak and Sandeep – in the next couple of raids and the youngsters didn’t disappoint as they helped reduce Bulls’ lead to 9 points with 6 minutes to go in the match.
After the timeout, the rejuvenated Pirates ate away Bulls’ lead and got the Bulls all out to make it a 5-point game with 3 minutes to go. Manjeet Chhillar showed his experience to ensure that they didn’t slip further and the Bulls arrested their decline to seal off a 31-26 win over the Pirates, who are winless in the tournament so far. The Bulls captain ended the match with 7 tackle and 4 raid points.
Man of the match: Manjeet Chhillar
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