Chennai: Tamil Thalaivas yet again faced a defeat as the Bengaluru Bulls tamed them to notch up a comfortable 48-37 win in the Zone-B match of the sixth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League, here on Wednesday.
Though it was not a nail biting finish, Thalaivas tried their best in the second half. Team captain, Ajay Thakur who was their fittest player marked strong raids then and there and achieved another super 10. For them, ‘bulk outs’ were the drawback that easily enabled the Bulls to achieve an easy victory.
With less than 10 minutes to go, Bengaluru Bulls led 40-23, but still Ajay Thakur continued to fight for Tamil Thalaivas as he scored two quick raids and trailed 25-41 after 33 minutes. Tamil Thalaivas inflicted an all out in the 34th minute to trail 29-42.
Pawan Kumar produced the best raiding performance of this season so far. Not to be forgetten, Sehrawat scored 20 points in a short time, but unfortunately suffered an injury at the beginning of the second half. Kashiling Adake, who reached the milestone of scoring 500 raid points in PKL, contributed 9 points.
The lone performer for Tamil Thalaivas was Ajay Thakur who scored 19 raid points. Again, it was the defence that let them down massively as they scored just five tackle points in the match.
For the first 10 minutes, it seemed like a straight shootout between Pawan Kumar and Ajay Thakur. With the score 8-5 in Bulls’ favour, Pawan had scored seven points whereas Thakur had contributed only four. It looked like a close match as after 11 minutes, the Bulls led 9-8.
The chances for victory increased as Pawan Kumar turned the match on its head in the 15th minute with the brave moment of the match when the score was 15-11. Kumar came up with a brilliant super raid and scored five points. He then followed it up with another four-point super raid as Bengaluru Bulls ended the first half leading 27-12.
Thalaivas never recovered from that double blow by Kumar as they suffered an all out at the beginning of the second half. Bengaluru Bulls were in a commanding position and led 34-15 after 24 minutes.
Notably, Kashiling Adake scored with a two-point raid in the 36th minute to lead 45-31 and it ensured their victory. Thakur tried to cut the deficit for Thalaivas as he continued to get raid points.
Earlier in the day, U Mumba registered a comfortable 39-32 victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers. Facing an early all out, U Mumba came back strongly after that and displayed a complete performance bioth in offence and defence to ensure a victory.