Tamil Thalaivas produced an all-round performance to comprehensively beat Haryana Steelers 45-26 in Match 45 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 at The Sheraton Grand, Whitefield, Bengaluru.
Manjeet clinched a Super 10 for the Thalaivas who also saw their prized defensive duo of Surjeet Singh (8 tackle points) and Sagar (7 tackle points) getting High 5s. Haryana coach Rakesh Kumar will have to lot to ponder with the entire team failing to turn against a fully-charged Thalaivas.
The first half was a high-scoring affair with Tamil Thalaivas dominating the early minutes. Captain Surjeet Singh and Sagar were in no mood to let the Haryana raiders settle as they dished out tackle after tackle to get their team an ALL OUT in the 5th minute.
The defence set the tempo for the Thalaivas while Manjeet, back again in the line-up after missing Thalaivas' previous encounter, and K. Prapanjan picked up the raid points.
The team from Chennai got their second ALL OUT with 8 minutes left to interval and opened a 14-point lead. But kabaddi is a game of momentum and Vikash Kandola quickly turned it around for the Steelers.
He found errors in an over-enthusiastic Tamil defence and helped Haryana claw their way back into the contest. They got their first ALL OUT with 2 minutes remaining for half-time to reduce Thalaivas' lead to 5 points. Tamil's Sagar got his High 5 before the teams switched sides with the scores at 24-18.
The second half was a repeat of the first with Thalaivas continuing their good form. Sagar made the right corner a no-entry zone for Haryana raiders, while their raiders continued to impress.
The team got their third ALL OUT in the 3rd minute after the restart as Haryana looked answerless. It only got worse for the Steelers who conceded another ALL OUT with 5 minutes remaining as Surjeet Singh claimed his High 5 and Manjeet got his Super 10.
The 18-point lead going into the last 5 minutes proved too much for the Haryana raiders as Tamil Thalaivas clinched the win.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor