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24 August 2014, Bengaluru:
The home of the Bulls, Bengaluru had gone above and beyond to create the perfect battleground for the Pro Kabaddi League's penultimate leg. Over 3 thousand seats had been filled to capacity by fans eager to see their home team fight its way back to a qualifying position. With their star players Ajay Thakur and Manjit Chillar recovered from their respective illnesses earlier in the League, the Bengaluru Bulls were truly looking 'fully charged'. Their opponents, the Bengal Warriors, were in slightly worse shape.
Despite a season of terrific raids, tackles and wins, tonight's match was to be their last performance in the League. Even with a win from tonight's game, the Warriors would not have garnished enough points to qualify for the finals. Under these melancholic circumstances, the Warriors ended their season with flourish and fanfare, going out with a bang. The match proved to be an incredible fight, but it was the Bulls that indubitably established their dominance, beating the Warriors 37 to 24
The first raid was given to Bengal Warrior's Mahesh Goud, who was brought down by the Bengaluru Bulls with a backdrop of perhaps the loudest crowds this League has ever heard. For the next 10 minutes the teams met eye to eye in both raids and tackles, with the particular detail of the Bengaluru Bulls making sure Warrior Jang Kun Lee never made it back to his side. Even after 3 brutal tackles, Jang Kun was as sprightly as ever, back-handspringing out of the dogpile and honourably walking to the out box.
As the first half came to an end, however, the Bengaluru Bulls began to edge ahead, whittling down the Bengal Warriors by once again tackling Jang Kun, who was quickly joined by Mahesh in the outbox. The whistle at half time gave Shyam Sha, the sole remaining Warrior brief respite from Bengaluru's wrath, but his relief would be short-lived.
The second half ended the relative equivalence of the two teams. Manjit Chillar quickly despatched Shyam for the first all out, an act repeated in less than 10 minutes by the Bulls. This second all out was largely thanks to Ajay Thakur, who was able to score a magnificent 3 point raid against the Warriors.
With 5 minutes remaining, the scores had polarized into 33 - 19, with Bengaluru leading far, far ahead. In fact, it seemed like the Bulls would be able to score a 3rd unanswered all out, as Manjit faced only 3 remaining Warriors. An imprecise ankle grab by Farhad Gharibi spelled distater for the Bengal Warriors, but in a fantastic feat of strength, Farhad adjusted his grip and single-handedly held the thrashing Manjit on the Bengal side.
Saved from the all-out, the Bengal Warriors fought as hard as they could to salvage their final match, earning 5 points in 5 minutes, but it would not be enough. The match would go to Bengaluru Bulls, giving the Bulls 5 league points and moving them up to the coveted 4th place in the standings. With 3 more matches to go, the Bulls had nowhere to look but up.
