Pro Kabaddi 2019: Dabang Delhi clinch convincing win over Tamil Thalaivas; Bengal Warriors seal narrow victory against Puneri Paltan

Kolkata: Dabang Delhi KC got back to winning in style with a convincing 50-34 victory over Tamil Thalaivas in their Pro Kabaddi League match on Sunday. Naveen Kumar, 19, was once again the star for Delhi as he added another Super 10 to his name to make it 12 in a row. [caption id=“attachment_7307251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The win took Warriors to the second spot in the table with 48 points. Image courtesy: PKL[/caption] Delhi now sit firmly atop the 12-team standings with 59 points from 14 matches. For the Chennai franchise, this was their sixth defeat on the trot as they slipped to 11th place with 27 points from 14 matches. Smarting from a disappointing loss against Haryana Steelers last night, Delhi re-jigged their raiding department by bringing in experienced pro Meraj Sheykh in place of Chandran Ranjit, resulting in a dominant show from the outset. Naveen was in exceptional form once again as Delhi effected the first all-out of the match in the 10th minute at the Netaji stadium. Before the half time, it was 24-12 in favour of Delhi. Naveen raced to his Super 10 in the first minute of the second-half. Sheykh produced a three-point raid to reduce the Thalaivas to just one man on the mat. The third all-out was achieved by the third minute of the half as Sheykh claimed his Super 10 in what was becoming an absolute thrashing for the Thalaivas. Thalaivas had already committed a whopping 24 unsuccessful tackles by the 15th minute of the half and that summed up their misery. Rahul Chaudhari clinched his Super 10 and Ajith Kumar secured nine in the final stages of the match but there was no coming back for the Chennai-based franchise. Meanwhile, Bengal Warriors rode on star all-rounder Mohammad Esmail Nabibakhsh’s last-minute super raid to eke out a dramatic 42-39 victory over Puneri Paltan in the day’s second Pro-Kabaddi League fixture. With Warriors trailing by five points with less than two minutes left, Iranian Nabibakhsh produced a neat raid and before his super raid inflicted an all-out, sealing the issue for his side. The win took Warriors to the second spot in the table with 48 points, 11 points less than leaders Dabang Delhi KC who defeated Tamil Thalaivas 50-34 in the previous match of the day. This was also Warriors’ first home win of the season. With less than 30 seconds left, the Warriors were trailing 35-39. Needing a miracle in absence of their captain Maninder Singh who was out in the bench, Nabibakhsh who was recruited in place of Korean raider Jang Kun Lee this season, made a high five with his super raid to produce a remarkable turnaround. Then in the dying minutes, captain Maninder Singh sealed the issue to give Warriors a second successive win against Pune this season.