Pro Kabaddi: Tamil Thalaivas lose to Bengaluru Bulls in 1st home game

PTI, Aug 18, 2019, 10:40 AM IST

Chennai: Bengaluru Bulls posted a 32-21 win over Tamil Thalaivas in a Pro Kabaddi League match here on Saturday.

The contest was always going to be about Bengaluru’s raiding prowess and Thalaivas’ resolute defence and Pawan Sehrawat’s storming early raids meant the former found themselves 5-0 up in the opening four minutes of the match.

Thalaivas’ poor form in the do-or-die raids continued as they lost Ajay Thakur and Shabeer Bappu.

Bengaluru Bulls tackled the Thalaivas’ last man Manjeet Chillar to inflict the first All-Out of the game and silenced the home crowd as the scoreline read 10-0.

Tamil Thalaivas tried to rally as they tackled Pawan Sehrawat twice and Shabbir Bapu picked two points in a single raid. But, Bengaluru Bulls went into the halftime break 17-10.

Ajith Kumar managed to get out of the grasp of Sehrawat and a brilliant foothold from Ran Singh meant Bengaluru’s lead got narrowed down to just five as the teams resumed play.

A failed do-or-die raid from Rohit Kumar, a back-kick from raiding Ajay Thakur, and a body grab from Mohit Chillar further reduced the deficit to 19-17.

Their hopes of mounting a comeback, however, suffered a major letdown when Ankit touched two players in a single raid and Saurabh Nandal completed his ‘High 5’ to restore the seven-point lead.

Tamil Thalaivas succumbed to another All-Out as Pawan Sehrawat completed another Super 10. The home side didn’t show any signs of resurgence after that.

They take on Puneri Paltans on Wednesday, who are at the bottom of the table.