A night after snatching a tie from the jaws of a victory, Bengal Warriors snatched a loss from the jaw of victory in front of their home crowds against Bengaluru Bulls in the Pro Kabaddi League season 4. The team was done in by some smart tactics by skipper Rohit Kumar who kept him away from raiding duties in the first half and then came back to strike decisive blows against a tiring Bengal defence in the second half to give Bengaluru Bulls a rare win in the tournament.
The match that ended 27-25 in favor of Bulls ended Bengal’s chances of making it to the play offs altogether.
Earlier, Bengaluru Bulls started with Yogesh Hooda instead of Rohit Kumar and made early inroads into the Bengal defence. For Warriors, the first points came from Monu Goyat and Nitin Madne and, for once, Bengal looked they were not relying solely on South Korean Jang Kun Lee for raid points.
Vishal Mane produced a superlative tackle in the third minute to put his team in the lead and more points followed for the Warriors soon when Rohit Kumar couldn’t control himself and went over the baulk line. Jang-Kun Lee wasn’t to be left behind his fellow raiders who had opened their accounts with one point each and got his team points with a back kick on the Bulls’ defender abdomen.
The Warriors were up and running.
The Bulls didn’t waste time in making comeback though, and with the help of successful raids by Ashish Kumar and a tackle by Mohit Chillar in the 10th minute negated the lead. Lee became the third man on the night to need medical attention after the Delhi vs Titans match had already seen two men face injuries.
Thankfully for the Warriors, the injury wasn’t too serious as he returned to the mat soon with a band-aid on the forehead.
But once again in the next five minutes, it was the Warriors who called the shots as Vishal Mane and Jang-Kun Lee once again delivered the goods for the team and by the 16th minute, the team had managed to inflict an All Out on the Bulls to climb to a comfortable position with an eight-point lead.
Rohit Kumar and Yogesh Hooda scored two points to claw back into the game, but it was all undone by Nitin Madne who collected two points when the half time buzzer was sounded.
Half Time – Bengal Warriors 15 – Bengaluru Bulls 8
In the second half, the Bulls made slow but steady progress to reduce the deficit to four in the first five minutes thanks to Rohit Kumar and the Bulls’ defence. The Korean raider then delivered a decisive blow to the Bulls defence when he sent Mohit Chhillar off the mat in the 24th minute.
Bengal replaced Nitin Madne with Girish Ernak to beef up their defence with a lead of five in pocket.
Jang-Kun Lee would strengthen Warriors position further by taking out the threatening looking Rohit Kumar in a do or die raid in the 30th minute. Despite the main men off the court, the Bulls never looked out of the game, and with Bengal’s propensity to topple from positions of strength, they knew they were always in with a good chance.
With just 9 minutes left in the game, there was only a 4 point difference between the two teams and it narrowed further when Lee failed on his next do or die raid in the 32nd minute.
The next few minutes saw Bengal playing the waiting game and using Girish Ernak for raiding duties to kill some time. Monu Goyat took Bengal’s score to 22 with a double point raid in the 34th minute and Vishal Mane foiled a Rohit Kumar raid attempt to extend it further, and more importantly put the star raider away from the court for some time.
The pendulum swung again, this time in the Bulls’ favour, when first Monu Goyat fell to a super tackle and then Jang Kun Lee also was brought down to reduce the score difference to two.
Once again, just as in yesterday’s contest against Telugu Titans, any result looked possible with 90 seconds left on the clock and the Bulls’ defence rose to occasion and got the lead down to a single point with a desperate tackle on Goyat.
A calm as cucumber Rohit Kumar then justified his absence off the court in the first half as he showed what a fresh Rohit Kumar could do in front of a tired defence when he made a super raid and scored on the buzzer raid to turn the tables on the Bengal Warriors.
For the second time in two days, the Bengal fans left with disappointed faces as with this loss, all doors were shut on the Warriors road to the play offs.
Full Time – Bengal Warriors 25 – Bengaluru Bulls 27
