The defending champion Bengal Warriors were up against the challenge of Tamil Thalaivas in the ‘Match 122’ of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8. Both the franchises have been knocked out from the race to playoffs and the game was all about ending the league stages on a positive note. The Warriors defeated their opponents in a completely one-sided affair winning 52-21 at the draw of the final whistle.
Maninder Singh was the star of the show tonight as the strike raider from Bengal had a total of fourteen points to his name emerging as the highest point scorer in the contest. The raider was tackled just once throughout the match and spent most of the time on the mat before being subbed on in the 39th minute of the game.
With his electric performance against the South Indian franchise, Maninder is just ten points behind Pawan Sehrawat who is at the top of the most successful raiders with 261 points to his name. With one league game left for both the superstars, the race to the green armband has become as intense as ever!
Other than Maninder, Esmaeil Nabibaksh was in exceptionally good form as well, the all-rounder from Iran had a total of thirteen points to his name as well being just tackled once by the Chennai-based franchise. Abozar Mighani led the charge in the defense with a Thigh 5 to his name racking up six points in the process. The Bengal-based franchise never gave their opponents a chance to make a comeback into the game and had a total of four all-outs over their opponents.
On the other hand, this was the most disappointing performance from the Chennai-based franchise this season as both their offensive and defensive unit failed to make any dent against their opposition. Known for their rock-solid defense, the Thalaivas had just four tackle points in the entire contest making it one of their most terrible outing this season.
The raiding unit was no better as the team had a total of just sixteen raid points out of which eight points were bonus points. None of the raiders in the absence of Manjeet was able to leave an impact on the game with Himanshu emerging as their top scorer with just seven points to his name. The team looked vulnerable without Manjeet and this has been the story of the season for the Thalaivas.
Maninder Singh escapes Sagar and Mohit to reach the midline
The contest had a slow start in the first five minutes as both sides were cautious of their raids and did not commit early in any of their tackles. However, a single raid from Maninder changed the pace of the game as the Bengal-based franchise out of a sudden was all over the Thalaivas.
Maninder and Abozar led the charge and gave their opponents no chances to recuperate as they rained down upon them and earned two consecutive all-outs upon their opponents developing an 18-point advantage over their opponents heading into the second half of the fixture.
The second half was no different as the Bengal-based franchise kept their control over the contest and gave Thalaivas no openings to find a way back in the game. Nabibaksh seemed unstoppable in the second half of the contest. The player escaped two super tackle attempts wiping out the Thalaivas twice in the process to earn four all-out points for his side.
The defensive unit came alive with Ran Singh and Abozar spearheading the unit as they picked up a total of thirteen tackle points throughout the game. With two more all-outs fueling their lead the team built up a 31-point advantage over opponents comfortably winning the game.
Both the team now have just one game left in their campaign and will look to finish things off with a win in their last game of the season. The defending champions will be up against the Puneri Paltan this Friday and could be one of the biggest roadblocks to Pune’s hope to playoffs this season. On the other hand, the Thalaivas will lock horns against the Gujarat Giants on Friday who would also be looking for a win to make it into the playoffs.