Bengaluru Bulls secured a narrow win over Bengal Warriors in the third match of the tournament.
Bengaluru Bulls secured a 24-23 win over the Bengal Warriors in their first match of the Pro Kabaddi season four.
This match was billed as a clash of two former U Mumba defensive power horses- Vishal Mane and Mohit Chillar. The opening minutes were cagey but Surjeet Narwal stepped on to the yellow area during his raid to gift Bengaluru the first point of the match. New signee, Rohit Kumar had to score from a do or die raid in the third minute but the Warriors pounced on him immediately to make it 1-1.
Raid points were few and far between in the opening ten minutes, both defences were extremely miserly. Even the normally offensive Rohit Kumar was subdued by the Bengal defence. Successful tackles were flying in from both ends as the score read 5-5 at the thirteen-minute mark. Rohit finally broke the raiding deadlock taking out Girish Ernak to make it 6-5.
That paved the way for more as Mohit Chillar couldn’t lock in his tackle and was sent to the bench. The crowd went bonkers as Jang Kun Lee came on for the Warriors with 4 minutes remaining. Sep Vinod then took out Nilesh Shinde with a clever leg touch to level the scores. Buoyed by that, his partner, Rohit Kumar scored another two to make it 10-8. But Lee had the final say in the first half, producing a stunning raid to take out three players as Bengal went into the second half one point ahead.
Both teams were down to four men as the second half began. Pawan Sice opened the scoring for the Bulls from a do or die raid. The Warriors followed it up with one of their own. The second half mirrored the first as raiders from both teams were extremely reluctant to go for the kill. It made for an intriguing affair as both sides continued to have only four men on the mat for the initial eight minutes.
Bulls captain and former U Mumba man, Surinder Nada was then sent to the bench for the first time in the match. Lee coerced him to make an unsuccessful tackle and picked up a point to make it 15-13. Soon the Bulls were down to two men with seven minutes remaining. And seconds later they suffered an all-out as Bengal led 21-15. The Warriors onslaught continued as Rohit Kumar couldn’t score from a do or die raid.
The burden of raiding responsibilities was solely placed on him. He made amends scoring three quick raid points to make it 20-22. Bengal were down to two men with one-minute left. Rohit scored another one to make it 21-22. They inflicted an all-out and took the lead in the dying seconds. An amazing comeback by Bengaluru to top off their night.
