Chennai: Tamil Thalaivas succumbed to yet another defeat at home, this time against table-toppers Jaipur Pink Panthers with a narrow margin of 26-28, at the Pro Kabaddi League Season 7, in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Wednesday.
In a highly-anticipated clash, Tamil Thalaivas skipper started off the proceeding by scoring a raid point. But a good defence coupled with Nilesh Salunke and Deepak Narwal’s raid points kept things tight at the start.
Leading by just a solitary point at 7-8, Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicted a super tackle on Ajay Thakur that gave them a three -point advantage.
Jaipur’s raider Deepak Narwal then picked up three more raid points to go into the interval with the scores at 13-11, with Jaipur enjoying the lead.
In the second-half, Jaipur continued to showcase its strong abilities of defence but at 17-13, they were reduced to just two men on the mat and Rahul Chaudhary inflicted an all-out that helped Thalaivas level the scores 17-17.
Jaipur, however, continued to maintain a slender lead despite Thalaivas giving a tough fight. At 25-22, a controversial decision by the officials that went against the Thalaivas was a defining moment of the match that proved to be the turning point.
Unable to take any further lead in the dying moments of the match, Tamil Thalaivas lost the game by just two points as their search for a home win continued.
In the match, Tamil Thalaivas also conceded way too many bonus points and coach E Bhaskaran believes that was the difference between the two teams.
“The reason for our loss is the bonus points that we conceded. We played well in all other departments but we couldn’t restrict them from scoring the bonus,” he explained.
Earlier in the day, defending champions Bengaluru Bulls displayed a dispirited performance against Puneri Paltan that saw them lose 23-31.