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Coach Anup Kumar's Puneri Paltan came into Match No. 51 of the Pro Kabaddi 2019 after tying with the home team, Tamil Thalaivas in their previous battle. Eyeing a victory, they were all set to take the mat against the Bengaluru-based franchise.
The champions of PKL 2018, Bengaluru Bulls came with the confidence of defeating the Tamil Thalaivas by a huge margin. Sitting on the fourth position, they looked to improve their ranking on the points' table.
Read to find out how the anticipated battle between Bengaluru Bulls and Puneri Paltan proceeded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai:
Nitin Tomar, the second-most expensive player in the Season 7 auctions, went for Puneri's first raid and returned empty-handed. Bringing in the first point for his squad, Captain Cool Rohit Kumar opened the account for the Bulls. Pouncing on him, Hadi sent Rohit off the mat to score the first point of the night for the Puneri brigade.
In two back-to-back raids by hi-flyer Pawan Sehrawat, the defense of the rival squad did not even let him squirm towards the middle line, hence sending him to the bench. In this defense-heavy battle, both teams moved cautiously, avoiding any error.
Pawan, who stepped on the mat with 98 points and the green arm-band to his name in the seventh season of the league, became the first-ever player to achieve the milestone of 100 raid points in PKL 2019, that too in just nine matches.
A review was claimed by the Puneri Paltan in Manjeet's favour, which, upon inspection, was deemed unsuccessful, much to their disappointment. The end of the first half saw the teams tied at ten each. However, despite Pawan's smoldering stats, he was kept off the mat by Pune's defense for nine solid minutes.
As the second half commenced, Rohit was immediately escorted off the mat by Pune's defense. He bizarrely enough did not perform the way he usually does, throughout the battle. Even Pawan and Sumit were kept at bay by the Paltan from Pune.
Eventually, the defending champions suffered their first all-out of the night in the 28th minute of the battle. Pune put up a cracking show, not allowing the Bulls to even steal a point from them. The score after the 33rd minute of the face-off was tilted heavily towards the Paltan, with 23-14 on the scoreboard.
Sporting a bandage on his head, Surjeet completed his second High 5 of the season in brilliant fashion. The desperate Bulls kept on making a bunch of schoolboy errors, thus helping the Paltan increase their lead.
With an impeccable offense and defense, Puneri Paltan emerged triumphant with the score 31-23. The Bulls simply did not live up to the expectations and displayed a disappointing performance, hence losing the battle.
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