Pro Kabaddi League 2018: Gujarat Fortunegiants down Dabang Delhi; UP, Bengal Warriors play out thrilling tie

Greater Noida: Gujarat Fortunegiants continued their impressive run with a 45-38 win over Dabang Delhi in the Pro Kabaddi League in Greater Noida Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_5503301” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Gujarat Fortunegiants recorded their fifth straight win thanks to Dong Geon Lee’s Super 10. Image Courtesy: PKL[/caption] Chandran Ranjit and Naveen Kumar tried their best to make an impact on the match by getting 11 and 8 raid points. They were let down by the experienced corner pair of Ravinder Pahal and captain Joginder Narwal who collected 3 tackle points in total between them. Dong Geon Lee was brought in for the match and caused problems for Delhi to get a Super 10. Sunil Kumar had a below par performance but his absence was covered up by Parvesh Bhainswal who got 6 tackle points. Gujarat Fortunegiants started with a toe touch by Rohit Gulia on Vishal in the first raid of the match. They continued to dominate Delhi with Gulia getting a Super Raid with a bonus point and touch points on Vishal and Yogesh Hooda to make it 1-5 in favour of Gujarat by the third minute. They then inflicted an All Out on Delhi by the sixth minute to take an 8 point lead with 3-11. The half ended with Gujarat leading by nine points. UP, Bengal play out thrilling tie UP Yoddha and Bengal Warriors again drew in their clash in the Pro Kabaddi League Season VI match. Maninder Singh made the difference for Bengal as he got 14 touch points to nearly score half the points for his team. Rishank Devadiga got 10 points whenever Surjeet Singh was absent and helps his team dominate. Nitesh Kumar caused trouble to Maninder Singh to get 4 tackle points while Narender constantly failed against him. Azad Singh was the super sub for UP Yoddha as he got 4 touch points in 5 raids. UP Yoddha entered this match with grit to finally win a match at home and break the home leg curse while Bengal Warriors started positively with Maninder Singh returning after the injury. Jang Kun Lee opened the score for Bengal in the 2nd minute by getting a running hand touch on Jeeva Kumar to make it 0-1. It was Rishank Devadiga who took advantage of a mistake by Surender Singh to make it 4-2 by getting Surender and Adarsh T out in the 4th minute. The match continued to be really close as both teams cancelling each other’s leads. Maninder Singh got Narender to get the touch points for Bengal in the 11th minute to make it 6-7. This continued to happen regularly as Narender gave away himself easily to the long hands of Maninder. Mahesh Goud was neutralized in the 15th minute by a really strong double ankle hold by Nitesh Kumar to make his mark on the match. Jang Kun Lee tried to leap over Sachin Kumar and Narender but was caught by their chain hold in the 20th minute’s Do-Or-Die raid to equalize the score to 11-11. The half ended with Bengal just edging past UP by 11-12. The second half saw the same results as both teams continued to score alternatively. Azad Singh came in as a substitute in the 25th minute Do-Or-Die raid to get a rusty Mahesh Goud to take the lead for UP with 15-14. Nitesh Kumar then got a really strong ankle hold on Jang Kun Lee after Lee regularly failed to get a bonus point in the 26th minute raid. Rakesh Narwal was saved in his 26th minute raid by Nitesh Kumar who attempted an ankle hold after he stepped out of the mat and makes it 17-16 in favor of UP Yoddha. Narender then finally got the better of Maninder Singh to inflict the All Out with a double thigh hold and make it 21-17 after being caught out 4 times before this. Maninder Singh got a Super Raid in the 33rd minute by getting Narender, Nitesh Kumar and after the review, Shrikant Jadhav to equalize the score again to 23-23. This led to an All Out on UP by Maninder  again after he got Sachin Kumar and Rishank Devadiga to take the lead to 26-28. Rishank Devadiga achieved his Super 10 and 500th career raid point in his 37th minute raid where he got Surender Singh and Shrikant Tewthia, getting rid of the right defensive side in one goes and make it 28-28. A great effort by Adarsh T to get Rishank Devadiga changed the status quo as Bengal took the lead and brought back Surjeet Singh. The game made some really edge of the moment situations as Jang Kun Lee slipped to tie the score and a great review by UP helped them draw the game again and make it 30-30. With inputs from Press Trust of India