In a shock start to the leg, the home team were beaten 17-20 by Bengal Warriors in a low-scoring opener which saw visiting defender Sachin Khambe put up a man of the match performance, while Ravinder Pahal’s efforts went down the drain. With this win, the Warriors snapped their 7-match winless streak. Sandeep Narwal showed his quality by scoring 9 points in a 30-28 win for the Patna Pirates over Bengaluru Bulls. Manjeet Chhillar led from the front by scoring 8 points, but an off day for the other players meant that the next leg’s hosts had to depart Delhi with a loss.
Rajesh Narwal’s brilliance
U Mumba returned to the top of the table with a 31-17 drubbing of Bengal Warriors. It was a team performance from Mumbai as captain Anup Kumar and raider Bhupender Singh topscored with 6 points, while Mohit Chillar and Pradeep Kumar manned the defence. The performance of the day came from Dabang Delhi’s young raider Kashiling Adake in his team’s commanding win over Patna Pirates. Kashi scored 13 points as Delhi cruised to a 45-26 win by inflicting 4 all outs on Sandeep Narwal’s men.
The home team were in for a hiding against defending champions, Jaipur Pink Panthers, who won 51-21. Rajesh Narwal was on song as he amassed a massive 19 points to help the Panthers in the top 4 by beating Dabang Delhi by the biggest margin in the second season – 30 points. The raider even enfored an all out thrice (6 points) as he alone outscored the Dabangs if we count the all out points as well. The Dabangs were annihilated by this performance which proved that despite having a bad first half to the season, you can never dismiss Jaipur Pink Panthers.
The Panthers moved to 3rd spot courtesy a 31-18 win over Puneri Paltan, which doomed Wazir Singh’s side to bottom of the table on the final day of the Delhi leg. Rajesh Narwal scored 6 points, while Kuldeep Singh, Sonu Narwal and Ran Singh, with 5 points each, helped inflict more misery on the team from Maharashtra. However, the Jaipur-Pune match can only be termed as child’s play compared to what was to unfold at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in the final match of the leg.
Kashiling Adake gave a masterclass
Dabang Delhi and Telugu Titans entertained the crowd with a brilliant match that saw both the teams share the spoils courtesy of an exhilarating 45-45 draw. The first half saw the home team establish a 2-point lead (20-18) over the Titans. However, the match, which saw the Titans get all out twice, swung more than a pendulum as both the teams were forced to settle for a draw after a controversial end to the match.
With Delhi leading 45-44, Kashiling Adake had claimed a point in the final raid, but after a review, the referees awarded the point to the Titans, as they moved to the top of the table. Kashiling Adake delivered the best individual performance in Pro Kabaddi history with 24 points, but his heroics were still not enough to guarantee a win for the Dabangs.
The final match was the perfect end to a sensational Delhi leg, which saw plenty of jaw-dropping raids and crunching tackles. The individual performances of Kashiling Adake and Rajesh Narwal will long stay in the memory of the fans as they bade farewell to the teams ahead of the Bengaluru leg.
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