Pro Kabaddi League 2021-22: COVID-19 scare and Manjeet Chillar’s ascent highlight Week 6

Towards the end of last week, the Pro Kabaddi League season was jolted by the same turn of events that threatened the Indian Premier League and Indian Super League. COVID-19 had managed to breach the bio-secure bubble. Importantly though, organisers rushed to isolate players, and the league managed to continue into its sixth week. “Two of the 12 PKL teams have found it difficult to field the requisite number of 12 players for their respective matches due to some players in these teams testing positive for COVID-19,” league owners Mashal Sports said in a statement. “The affected players have been timely isolated as part of the safety protocol.” Despite the nervy start to the week, there was plenty of action to savour – especially from the raiding departments. In a high scoring week, six of the nine matches ended with the winning team scoring over 40 points. The biggest win belonged to the Patna Pirates, who scored a 28-point victory over the Tamil Thalaivas. The only draw of week was in the match between Haryana Steelers and Telugu Titans, which ended 39-39. The match saw return of Titans’ captain Rohit Kumar. He picked up three touch points, two bonus points, and locked in three successful tackles for a tally of 8. His teammate, the left corner Sandeep Kandola also notched his second Hi5 performance of the season in the draw on Tuesday, 25 January. But the individual performances could do nothing to lift the Titans off the bottom of the pack. Meanwhile, at the top of the table, Dabang Delhi – still without the services of their spearhead Naveen Kumar – managed to notch two impressive wins to regain No 1 spot. No spots for granted At this stage of the season, as the leaderboard starts to take shape, none can take the Top 6 positions for granted. Four of the Top 6 teams ended the week with a loss. Only Bengal Warriors (placed 6) and the Delhi franchise won their last match of the week that finished on 31 January. Fifth-placed U Mumba lost 30-36 to Dabang Delhi on Monday, Steelers, placed at No 4, also lost by six points (26-32) to 11th placed Gujarat Giants, the Patna Pirates were hammered 30-51 by 8th placed Jaipur Pink Panthers, and second-placed Bengaluru Bulls were beaten 24-42 by Tamil Thalaivas. And the positions can just as easily change – considering that five points come with a win, and there’s a difference of eight points between sixth place Warriors and 11th place Giants. Bulls’ blundering defence For all the raiding prowess of Pawan Sehrawat, he cannot lead the Bengaluru Bulls alone. He needs the help of a stumbling Bulls defensive-line to help secure wins. In the two matches the team played this week, it was the defence that let them down. In the 34-45 loss to U Mumba on Wednesday (26 January), Bulls recorded seven successful tackles to the 15 from the Mumbai outfit. After the match coach Randhir Singh said in the press conference: “The problem is not with the offence. If our defence does well, we win matches. If the defence starts to help it’ll be very helpful (for Sehrawat and the raiding unit)." Crucially, in the next match against the Thalaivas on Sunday, the Bulls picked up just five successful tackles to Tamil Thalaivas. The Bulls lost that match 24-42. Interestingly though, in Season 8, no other team has scored more points than the Bulls in raiding and defending. Bulls has the most tackle points (162) and raid points (362), with the Patna Pirates (156) and Dabang Delhi (319) trailing in second respectively. Sehrawat is responsible for 214 (207 raid and 7 tackle points) of the Bulls’ total of 524 points this season. New landmark for Manjeet Without the injured Naveen Kumar, it’s been the veteran Manjeet Chhillar who has stepped up to guide the Dabang Delhi outfit. The wrestler-turned-kabaddi player has been the most successful defender in the eight seasons of the PKL, and in Week 6 of the current season, he became the first defender to cross the 350 successful tackles mark. After Delhi’s win over U Mumba in the Metropolitan Derby on Monday, Manjeet’s stats now read 354 successful tackles, with 370 tackle points, across the 123 PKL matches he’s played. In comparison, the second-best defender is U Mumba skipper Fazel Atrachali, with 325 successful tackles in 117 matches. A drop in speed over the years has forced Manjeet to focus more on his defensive responsibilities. In total he’s picked up 24 Hi5s and notched up 16 Super Tackles. But it’s folly to forget he was once a very able raider. In the earlier seasons of the marquee league – and even from the few rare occasions in these past few terms – he’s picked up 225 raid points from 722 raids. This includes five Super Raids and two Super 10s. In all, he’s earned 595 points, putting him 13th in the list of most points ever scored – just one short of Puneri Paltans’ coach Anup Kumar’s tally. Results 25 January Haryana Steelers tie with Telugu Titans 39-39 26 January U Mumba bt Bengaluru Bulls 45-34 27 January Puneri Paltan bt UP Yoddha 44-38 28 January Patna Pirates bt Tamil Thalaivas 52-24 29 January Dabang Delhi bt Gujarat Giants 41-22 30 January Tamil Thalaivas bt Bengaluru Bulls 42-24 Jaipur Pink Panthers bt Patna Pirates 51-30 31 January Dabang Delhi bt U Mumba 36-30 Gujarat Giants bt Haryana Steelers 32-26 Deepti Patwardhan is a freelance sports writer based in Mumbai. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.