Thalaivas back to winning ways

HYDERABAD: Tamil Thalaivas ended its three-match winless streak with a gritty 35-30 win over Bengal Warriors in the Season 9 of the Pro Kabaddi League here on Monday.

The win helped Thalaivas move up to eighth in the table with 43 points from 15 games, while Bengal is placed at seventh with an identical 43 points but with a much superior score difference. Thalaivas will be back in action on Tuesday when it takes on U Mumba in what will be yet another crucial match in the race to qualify for the play-offs.

It looked like both Bengal and Thalaivas were evenly matched and when they clashed in the previous round in Pune, the match ended in a thrilling 41-41 tie. For a large part of their contest on Monday, it appeared that another tie was the most likely result with neither of the teams enjoying a comfortable lead.

Thalaivas was yet again well-served by promising raider Narender who secured 13 points and in defence captain Sagar was a picture of composure finishing with 5 points. Sagar made his presence felt in the last few seconds of the game effecting a brilliant ‘Super Tackle’ on Maninder Singh to open up a three-point lead. In the last raid of the match, Thalaivas’ Ajinkya Pawar bagged two points to help his team win by a five-point margin. Ajinkya ended the match with seven points.

In the post-match press conference, Thalaivas coach, Ashan Kumar, pointed out the significance of this victory in the wake of their recent poor results. “Firstly, I’m glad that we have started off our Hyderabad leg with a crucial win over a strong opponent. Had we lost this match, it would have made things difficult for us in the games ahead. I should credit my team for executing the strategy to perfection and for maintaining composure at tense moments,” said Ashan.

Bengal Warriors coach, Kasinathan Baskaran, said his team will have to immediately sort out its second raider issue as it is heavily reliant on Maninder to get the job done. Of the 30 points that Bengal earned, Maninder’s share was exactly half at 15 and that paints a rather worrying picture for the 2019 champion.

In the evening’s second match, UP Yoddhas captain, Pardeep Narwal, breached the 1,500 barrier in raid points as his team staved off a spirited challenge from Gujarat Giants to win 35-31. At half-time, Yoddhas was ahead by 20-10, but Gujarat turned things around in the second-half with a resolute performance that nearly got it past the finish line.

RESULTS: Tamil Thalaivas 35 bt Bengal Warriors 30; UP Yoddhas 35 bt Gujarat Giants 31