Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Best playing 7 from the Nagpur Leg

The Nagpur leg of the Pro Kabaddi League ended with the home team Bengaluru Bulls suffering a disappointing loss against bottom-of-the-table team Tamil Thalaivas. The Bulls ended their home leg winning two matches, losing three and tying the other match.

There were many brilliant individual performances out of which we have selected the best 7 from the Nagpur leg. While the opening leg in Hyderabad saw youngsters like Vishal Bhardwaj, Vikas Kandola and Nitesh Kumar rise to the occasion, the Nagpur leg saw established PKL stars like Manjeet Chhillar and Mohit Chhillar reminding everyone of their quality and rebounding after a poor start. Also, the likes of Surender Nada, Pardeep Narwal and Rohit Kumar just continued their superb form into the second leg.

The best 7 comprises of two big-name defenders, a rising star, an inform corner and three of the best raiders in the PKL.

Mohit Chhillar (Right corner)

Mohit had failed to pick up a single tackle point in his first two matches but scored a superb High 5 against Gujarat Fortunegiants with seven tackle points. His hat-trick of super tackles helped Haryana claim their first win of PKL 5.

Mohit’s strong holds proved impossible for the Gujarat raiders to escape. Haryana fans will hope that this High 5 was the first of many more to come.The old Nada and Chhillar corner partnership was in full force as Mohit complimented the inform Nada brilliantly.

Rahul Chaudhari (Right-in)

Rahul (yellow) is leading the Titans this season

Rahul Chaudhari makes the team simply due to his heroics in the dying minutes of the match against the home team Bengaluru Bulls. With just around a minute left against the Bulls, Telugu Titans were heading for their sixth straight defeat but Rahul produced two brilliant raids at the end to prove his class and salvage a tie for his team.

In a low-scoring encounter, Rahul scored eight raid points and was the top scorer of the match, despite facing criticism for his goof-up on the last raid.

Ashish Kumar Sangwan (Right-cover)

Ashish (centre) was retained by the Bulls for Season 5

The lanky right cover was one of Bengaluru Bulls best performers from their home leg. His fine performances justified the faith shown on him by the team management who retained him ahead of established stars like Mohit Chhillar and Surender Nada.

He scored a High 5 against Bengal Warriors which had dangerous raiders like Maninder Singh and Jang Kun Lee in their ranks which helped Bengaluru Bulls end their three-match winless run.

Rohit Kumar (Center)

Rohit is leading the raiding charts so far

The Bengaluru Bulls captain was comfortably the best player of his team consistently scoring points, but was let down due to the lack of support from his teammates. He scored three Super 10s from the six matches played at Nagpur.

Overall, Rohit scored 48 raid points from six matches and is now the leading raider of PKL 5 with 58 raid points from seven matches. Not only was Rohit superb while raiding, he also contributed with vital defensive points. His superb efforts could be gauged by the fact that despite Bengaluru Bulls losing three matches, Rohit still scored 29 raid points in those games.

Manjeet Chhillar (Left Cover)

Manjeet was back to his best against Pune

The best defender of the PKL proved his class once again, leading Jaipur Pink Panthers to an unlikely win against Puneri Paltan, who had won both their opening matches. Manjeet scored seven tackle points and in the process, became the first player in PKL to score more than 200 tackle points.

Manjeet completely dominated the Pune raiders using his strength and anticipation. Manjeet also became the first player in PKL to score more than 200 raid points and tackle points.

Pardeep Narwal (Left In)

Pardeep (in green) has been in sublime form

The “Dubki King” is simply unstoppable at the moment. He scored 15 raid points against the home team Bengaluru Bulls leading Patna to their third win in as many matches. It was also Pardeep’s third consecutive Super 10 of PKL 5.

Pardeep Narwal’s dubkis, jumps and escapes proved impossible for the Bulls defense to handle as he helped Patna win comfortably by 14 points. The loss was also Bengaluru Bulls biggest defeat in PKL 5 so far. The Patna captain has scored 42 points in just 3 matches so far averaging a brilliant 14 raid points per match.

Surender Nada (Left corner)

Nada has been the rock at the back for Haryana

Surender Nada continued his brilliant form in the Nagpur leg, scoring his third High 5 in as many matches. The Haryana captain also scored a raid point, taking advantage of Fazel Atrachali’s lapse in concentration.

Nada’s brilliant performance means he has now taken 17 tackle points in just 3 matches and is just 2 tackle points behind the highest tackle point scorer Vishal Bhardwaj of the Telugu Titans. Nada is averaging a fantastic 5.67 tackle points per match.