With just three matches remaining in the league stage of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8, the Gujarat Giants have managed to keep themselves in the running for a playoff berth with an impressive win over Tamil Thalaivas.
Gujarat’s defense troika of Parvesh Bhainswal, Girish Maruti Ernak, and Sunil Kumar wreaked havoc on the Thalaivas’ raiders to give their team a 43-33 win.
As a result of this victory, Gujarat is now at the seventh position in the league standings and has one match remaining against U Mumba on Saturday. A win in their last league game will push Gujarat into the top-6 and, consequently, the playoffs.
The first half saw a close contest between the two defensive units. Two successful tackles at the start by the Tamil side got them going. Gujarat’s lead raiders were struggling, especially Ajay Kumar. The defense, though, managed to prevent the team from falling too far behind.
They kept Thalaivas from getting a touchpoint for more than 10 minutes in the first half. With Ajay failing to make a mark, it was HS Rakesh who took the lead in the raiding department.
Courtesy of Girish Ernak and Rakesh’s efforts, an all-out was inflicted upon the Thalaivas in the 12th minute of the match. The score stood at 11-6 in favor of Gujarat at that time and changed to 16-11 at the end of the first half.
However, after the break, the Giants started to lose ground. Four points on the trot by the Thalaivas reduced their opponents’ lead to just one point. Then, with Gujarat down to two men, Himanshu pulled off a successful raid to eliminate both the remaining players. With this all-out, Tamil Thalaivas now went into the lead at 19-16 in the third minute of the second half.
The travails of Ajay continued as he got tackled yet again. In a lucky break, two of the defenders who tackled him went out of bounds, giving Gujarat two points.
Tamil Thalaivas raider Manjeet gets tackled by Gujarat Giants’ players
An important change was made around this time by coach Manpreet Singh of the Giants. He brought in talented young raider Pardeep Kumar to boost his team’s raiding capabilities. Pardeep repaid the confidence by getting a crucial point in a do-or-die raid. The score read 20 apiece at that moment.
The Thalaivas failed in their do-or-die raid and then conceded a raid point to Mahendra Rajput. The Giants were awarded a two-point lead while the Thalaivas were down to just two men.
Manjeet temporarily averted the all-out but it was inflicted eventually in the 10th minute of the second half. Gujarat now led 27-23. The Giants quickly capitalized on the lead as their defenders started pulling out one successful tackle after another. Meanwhile, Mahendra Rajput got into his stride and started raking in raid points.
The lead soon grew to 34-27 and kept increasing. The Thalaivas suffered their third all-out of the game in the 18th minute and that sealed their fate. With the score reaching 39-29, it was all over. Some cheap points were given by Gujarat at this stage but they ensured that the leakage wasn’t much and they ended the match with a 10-point gap. This match was the last one of the season for Tamil Thalaivas. After an encouraging start, they lost their way. For Gujarat, their hopes are still alive.
The star of the match in the raiding department for the winning team was Mahendra Rajput with 10 points. But it was the defense that really stood out. Parvesh Bhainswal secured a High-5 while Sunil Kumar and Girish Maruti had 4 points each. If their team goes into the playoffs, this defense troika will be worth watching out for.