Delhi wins again; Puneri pips Bulls

HYDERABAD: Defending champion Dabang Delhi notched up its second consecutive win in as many days to storm into fifth place of the Pro Kabaddi League standings here on Sunday.

Riding on a ‘Super 10’ show from its captain, Naveen Kumar, a dominant Delhi beat Haryana Steelers 42-30. Naveen received good support from fellow raider Ashu Malik who registered a ‘Super 10’ of his own finishing with 10 points. Naveen had 15 points to his credit.

Apart from the raiding duo, defenders Amit Hooda and Sandeep Dhull excelled finishing with an identical three points each. In the evening’s second match, Puneri Paltan defeated Bengaluru Bulls 35-33.

After its horror show in Pune, where it lost six of the seven matches it played there, Delhi seems to be on a mission to restore its reputation with back-to-back wins over tricky opponents in Patna Pirates and Haryana. While it eked out a narrow 30-27 win over Patna on Saturday, Delhi played with the sort of panache and verve that helped secure a maiden title last season in vanquishing Haryana on Sunday.

In the post-match press conference, Delhi coach, Krishan Kumar Hooda, praised his team for an all-round performance. “After the Patna match where Naveen had an off-day, I promised that he would get back to his best on Sunday. I’m glad that Naveen repaid my faith with a fantastic show. However, what gladdens me is that everyone contributed to the victory and we weren’t dependent on one individual. I hope we build on this win and play like how we did when we won five matches in a row in Bengaluru earlier this season,” said Hooda.

His counterpart, Manpreet Singh, understandably cut a forlorn figure after yet another defeat but still retained hope that Haryana would make it to the play-offs.

But the match that the capacity holiday crowd was looking forward to was the one between table-topper Bengaluru and Puneri that followed the Delhi-Haryana game. In the previous clash between these two teams on October 9, Bengaluru made its home advantage count in earning a thrilling 41-39 win. Another humdinger of a contest was thought to be on the cards, and in most people’s eyes these two teams are the overwhelming favourites to win the title, and the heavyweight match certainly lived up to its billing.

It looked like Puneri was heading for a convincing win when it took a healthy 20-10 lead at half-time. But not for nothing is Bengaluru such a feared opponent and out of nowhere it closed the gap with raider Bharat leading the comeback with a spectacular effort. The scores were level at 33 when Puneri raider Aslam Inamdar went for the last raid of the match in what was a ‘Do or Die’ raid. Aslam overcame his nerves and earned two points that helped his team exact revenge and sent the Puneri fans into raptures.

RESULTS: Dabang Delhi 42 bt Haryana Steelers 30; Puneri Paltan 35 bt Bengaluru Bulls 33