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Pro Kabaddi League: Paltan gifts lead, settles for a tie against Thalaivas
Seating with a lead of 29-25 at the end of the 37th minute, Puneri Paltan messed up their defence and allowed Tamil Thalaivas player, V Ajith Kumar, to take four
Seating with a lead of 29-25 at the end of the 37th minute, Puneri Paltan messed up their defence and allowed Tamil Thalaivas player, V Ajith Kumar, to take four points and finished the match in a tie with the score reading 31-31 at the end of 40 minutes.
Paltan had their chances even in the last raid with a score 31-30 in their favour, but Manjeet’s unsuccessful raid did the damage on day one of the Chennai leg at the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium on Sunday during the Pro Kabaddi League.
“Manjeet tried his best, but it was a ‘do-or-die raid’ and so, he had to go for points,” said Anup Kumar after the match.
It was a battle of equals as the score was neck to neck right from the start. Pune had their moments, but failed to sustain the lead as their key players kept making mistakes.
From the 5th to 10th minute, Paltan was at its peak as they collected nine points while Thalaivas collected only one point. From there onwards, Paltan kept the lead, but played a slow game which allowed Thalaivas to go into half time with a deficit of two points and the score reading 15-13 in Paltan’s favour.
After half time, Paltan was on the back foot as they suffered an ‘all out’ in the 23rd minute.
Ernak’s form a worry for Paltan
Girish Ernak, the vice-captain of the team, was again left asking for more as he could manage only one successful tackle out of six. Surjeet Singh collected seven points during his cameo, however, no support from the other end cost Paltan a victory.
In all eight matches so far, Erank and Surjeet have failed to click together. Ernak has managed only 19 points in eight matches.
Pankaj Mohite again stood out as the top performer in the raiding department, scoring seven points. A lot was expected from Nitin Tomar, but he only managed to score 5 points in 12 raids.
“Mohite is really playing well, but Tomar played weak today,” added Kumar.
For Thalaivas, V Ajith Kumar was the best raider of the match, who collected 8 points for his team.
Anup Kumar, coach, Puneri Paltan
I am not happy with the tie, we were winning the match and yet to settle for three points. Defence of support was less in the last three minutes which made an impact on the match.
Match no 8: August 18, Sunday
Result: Tie vs Tamil Thalaivas
Score: 31-31
Stats Box:
Puneri Paltan vs Tamil Thalaivas
16 Raid points 18
12 Tackle points 10
2 All Out points 2
1 Extra Point 1
31 Total 31
