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Almost three weeks of Pro Kabaddi action has taken place in the fifth season and while previous seasons would have reached their business end by now, the longer season this year means that there is a lot more kabaddi action still in the stock. The best takeaway from the first three legs of Kabaddi has been the emergence of new names like Sachin, Rohit Gulia, Vishal Bhardwaj and Mahendra Singh who have showed that they are ready to step up and replace some of the older names from the pantheon of Pro Kabaddi League in the near future.
At the same time, the loss of form of some proven performers has also left the fans disappointed. However, the notable names have had their moments on the mat as well as they broke records and reached milestones in the fifth season of the league. Here are the five Pro Kabaddi League records that were created in the first few weeks of Season 5.
#1 Pardeep Narwal becomes quickest to 50 raid points in a season
For a man who racks up points like the ATM machine, there couldn't have been a more deserving candidate than Narwal for this record. In fact, the way he has gone about his business with unbelievable consistency over the last three seasons, there are a number of 'Fastest to' records waiting for him to be shattered.
It was in the match against UP Yoddha where Narwal struggled by his own standards and finished with just 9 points that he brought up the record. To put things in perspective, Narwal stands fourth on the raid points leaderboard currently this season with 51 points just below Sachin who has 54. But Narwal's 51 points have been achieved in 4 matches in comparison to Sachin's 9. He achieved 3 Super 10's in his first three games before narrowly missing out on another in the last game. If there ever was a case of numbers not lying, this is it.
#2 Rahul Chaudhari becomes the first to reach 500 raid points
Before there was Pardeep Narwal, there was Rahul Chaudhari, the real Raid Machine of Pro Kabaddi. And a look at the leaderboards would tell you that he is still pretty much there, right at the top of it, in fact. Yet, Chaudhari has only seldom looked the force he used to be in his prime this season. Although he is still at the top of the table with 79 raid points from 10 matches, his raiding hasn't won his team matches, something both he and his management would be disappointed with.
But Chaudhari had his moment early in the season when, in the third game against Bengaluru Bulls, he became the first Pro Kabaddi player to reach the landmark of 500 raid points. How brilliant Chaudhari is can be told by the fact that no one in the league is anywhere close to that mark as of now.
Chaudhari lords over the most raid points table with 561 raid points from 67 games that include 28 Super 10s. Next to Chaudhari is another charismatic player Anup Kumar of U Mumba but he is far far behind Chaudhari, ensuring the Titans captain's numero uno position would remain untouched for some time in the future.
#3 Manjeet Chhillar double hundred of tackles
Another veteran of Pro Kabaddi who found a reason to celebrate early in Season 5 is Jaipur Pink Panthers new skipper Manjeet Chhillar. Out of Jaipur's 4 games, Manjeet has won two and his team has lost two. That's exactly how it has been. Against Puneri Paltan and Bengaluru Bull, Chhillar was in a league of his own and scored 7 and 8 tackle points respectively to single-handedly win his team the games. On the other nights, when his form wasn't that hot, his team let the match slip away.
It was in Jaipur's match against Puneri Paltan where the all rounder reached the personal milestone of 200 tackle points in his 63rd appearance in the league and became the first in Pro Kabaddi to do so. Another Chhillar, Mohit, is not too far behind with 180 points but Manjeet has secured his place in Pro Kabaddi history by reaching the milestone first.
Manjeet also sits atop the table for most tackle points by quite a margin and if he is going to score bucketful of them like he did against Bengaluru Bulls in his team's last match, Mohit and other defenders will have a lot of catching up to do to overtake him.
#4 Atrachali becomes the first foreign defender to score 100 tackles
There are only a few foreign recruits in Pro Kabaddi League who can claim to have made more impact than the Iranian Fazel Atrachali. And no one in defence definitely can, for whichever team he has played for, the ever smiling Atrachali has proved to be the pillar of their defensive unit. In Season 5, he is again making a huge impact for the Gujarat Fortunegiants who are winning matches after matches on the back of stellar defensive shows by Atrachali and his fellow Iranian Abozar Mighani in the defence.
Earlier this season, the evidence of Atrachali's consistency came to the fore when he became the first foreigner in the league to accumulate 100 points by tackling. Since then, he has only improved his game and might increase that number substantially by the time the season ends.
#5 Kashiling completes a century of bonuses
Things have gone downhill for Kashiling Adake in the past couple of seasons and there seems to be no spike in that graph even now when he has joined the U Mumba unit. However, against Telugu Titans on Saturday, Adake found himself some reason to celebrate as he became the first player in the league's history to score 100 bonus points.
Accruing bonus points is definitely one of the most underrated arts in the game and despite his failing performances, if anyone can claim to have mastered it, it would be the man from Sangli who has made the job sneaking past a point 6-7 defenders look ridiculously easy on numerous occasions now. The U Mumba unit, however, would need more to come out from their investment in Adake and plenty of raid points is what they would be expecting from Adake.
