Thalaivas, Warriors play out thrilling tie

PUNE: Tamil Thalaivas’ resurgence under new head coach Ashan Kumar continued as it held Bengal Warriors to a thrilling 41-41 tie in Season 9 of the Pro Kabaddi League here on Wednesday.

Thalaivas moved up to tenth in the table with 23 points from nine matches while Warriors is eighth with 24 points from nine games. Thalaivas started off strongly, inflicting two ‘All Outs’ in the first half and led 26-14 at the half-time breather. Astonishingly, the Warriors defence failed to pick up even a single tackle point in the first period.

However, Bengal started moving into the ascendancy in second half. The experienced raiding combination of skipper Maninder Singh (19 raid points) and Deepak Hooda (11 points – 9 raid points and 2 tackle points) came to the fore scoring vital points to reduce the deficit. For Thalaivas that did not hold its nerve in the final 15 minutes, young raider Narender (15 raid points) made heads turn again with an eye-catching performance.

Earlier, U Mumba earned a hard-fought 40-37 win over Telugu Titans. This is U Mumba’s sixth win in nine matches and the victory helped it consolidate its position at third in the table with 31 points. The Titans’ losing streak continued unabated as the team from Hyderabad languishes at the bottom of the table with just eight points from 10 games. What is equally worrisome is that Titans has just a solitary win and nine defeats.

In the post-match press conference, Titans coach Venkatesh Goud said that he would take heart from his team’s improvement in both the defence and raiding department.

“I was happy with how our defence fared against a superior opponent. Parvesh Bhainswal, in particular, with eight tackle points stood out and PO Surjeet Singh brought all his experience into play. In raiding, Siddharth Desai with 18 points (17 raid points and 1 tackle point) was close to returning to his best after a prolonged lean patch. Even though we lost, there were signs of improvement. We are confident of ending this losing run soon.”

RESULTS: Tamil Thalaivas 41 tied with Bengal Warriors 41; U Mumba 40 bt Telugu Titans 37