Warriors decimates Titans; Panthers beats Pirates

BENGALURU: Bengal Warriors registered its maiden victory in Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 with a 45-25 win over Telugu Titans at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

A day after going down to Haryana Steelers, Warriors decimated a disjointed Titans, thanks to the raiding trio of captain Maninder Singh (11 raid points), Deepak Hooda (11 points – 9 raid points and 2 tackle points) and Shrikant Jadhav (7 raid points).

“When none of our plans work, we have to give credit to the opponent (referring to the Haryana match). I asked the players to stay positive, despite the defeat the previous day. All of the them [in the ‘Starting Seven’] contributed to our success against Titans,” said Bengal head coach Kasinathan Baskaran in the post-match press interaction. “I did not expect the team to win by such a huge margin (20),” added Baskaran.

The Titans defence had a forgettable day at the office, with PO Surjeet Singh, Parvesh Bhainswal and captain Ravinder Pahal failing to even get on the scorecard. They combined for a grand total of 16 unsuccessful tackles against an in-form Warriors raiding unit.

Maninder showed his class early on with a ‘Super Raid’ as Bengal inflicted the first ‘All Out’ in the seventh minute to open up a nine-point (12-3) lead. Eight minutes later, Warriors completed another clean sweep to extend the advantage to 15 (21-6) points. Courtesy of two ‘All Outs’ in the first half, a dominant Bengal team held a comfortable 15-point (25-10) cushion at the half-time break.

The script was not much different in the second half, during which Hooda delivered a ‘Super Raid’. Warriors inflicted the third ‘All Out’ in the 27th minute and was ahead by 19 (37-18) points with 10 minutes left on the clock. Leading by a mile, Bengal saw out the lop-sided match with ease as Titans ran out of ideas.

Meanwhile, Arjun Deshwal (17 raid points) came up with a dazzling performance for Jaipur Pink Panthers, which recorded a 35-30 victory over Patna Pirates. Rohit Gulia (11 raid points) and Sachin (10 points – 8 raid points and 2 tackle points) impressed for Patna, but could not prevent their team from suffering its first defeat. In the final match on the night, Bengaluru Bulls edged out Puneri Paltan 41-39 in an absolute thriller.

RESULTS: Jaipur Pink Panthers 35 bt Patna Pirates 30; Telugu Titans 25 lost to Bengal Warriors 45; Puneri Paltan 39 lost to Bengaluru Bulls 41