It was a memorable night for those in attendance at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday, as the home team – Bengal Warriors – secured a 39-34 victory over Telugu Titans and closed the gap on current Zone B leaders Bengaluru Bulls.
Maninder Singh was the star of the show yet again, scoring 12 raid points and becoming the fastest player to reach 500 raid points in VIVO Pro Kabaddi.
Maninder Singh opened proceedings with a two-point raid and Jang Kun Lee followed it by scoring four touch points in his first raid attempt to give Bengal Warriors a 6-0 lead in just the second minute of the match. But a touch point from Rajnish and a Super Tackle each from Armaan and Kamal Singh brought Telugu Titans’ deficit down to just two. Armaan added a touch point to his tally and Krushna Madane then tackled Ravindra Ramesh Kumawat to level the scores and reduced Bengal Warriors down to just three men.
However, a Super Tackle from Bengal Warriors followed by back-to-back two-point raids from Maninder put Bengal Warriors back on top in the contest and close to inflicting an All-Out on Telugu Titans. Armaan went in to raid as the last man on the mat for his team and returned a Super Raid, pegging Bengal Warriors’ lead down to just two points. Maninder was on a roll and scored a touch point each in his next two raids to leave Armaan as the last man yet again. This time, the defence stayed deep, timing the raider out and inflicting the All-Out to take a 19-14 lead in the contest.
Post the All-Out, Bengal Warriors continued to pile on the points, with Kumawat, Lee and Maninder scoring a raid point each and Surjeet Singh adding a second tackle point to his tally, as the teams headed into the halftime break with the home side leading 23-15.
Maninder added to his Super 10s tally after scoring two more raid points in the first five minutes of the second half, while Rajnish and Armaan scored a touch point each for Telugu Titans to keep their team in the hunt. But in the 27th minute, Kumawat scored a four-point raid in a Do-Or-Die situation to put his team up by 12 points. Rakshith quickly responded with a two-point raid and Abozar Mohajermighani got his first tackle point of the night as Telugu Titans gave themselves some momentum, but four straight points from Bengal Warriors put them back in the driver’s seat.
A Super Tackle from Mighani followed by a two-point raid from Farhad Milaghardan reduced Bengal Warriors down to just four men. A chain tackle by Telugu Titans in Lee’s Do-Or-Die raid sent the raider to the bench and Milaghardan then added to his raid points tally with a touch on Adarsh T as Bengal Warriors were left with just two men on the mat.
The home team brought in Vijin Thangadurai to give themselves a chance at a Super Tackle but Armaan managed to escape a Dash attempt from the substitute after getting a touch on Surjeet to inflict the All-Out as the scoreline read 36-33 in Bengal Warriors’ favour.
With under a minute left, Bengal Warriors played it smart in their two ensuing raids, thereby adding three more points to their score as the clock expired and the home team secured a victory.
