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Zone A teams have had the upper hand in the Inter-Zone challenges thus far in Season 5. That trend was arrested on Sunday though as it was all Zone B on Day 39.
On a night dominated by low-scoring contests, the Bengaluru Bulls finally picked up a win, beating the Puneri Paltan 24-20 while in the second game, the Telugu Titans beat the home side Haryana Steelers 37-19. Much-needed wins for two struggling sides.
Here's a look at what stood out on the night:
#1 No Do, only Die
The Bengaluru Bulls after having lost six straight finally won a game against the much more fancied Puneri Paltan in a slow, cagey and plodding affair to kick-start the night. Both teams opted to play on the Do or Die raid, forcing their opponents to come out trumps in those moments.
It was the defences though that emerged triumphant in this contest as the Do or Die raids, almost 75% of the time saw the raider getting captured. Rohit Kumar, Ajay Kumar and Deepak Hooda are all amongst the best raiders in the business, but they weren't given any respite by the two defences as they made it extremely hard for them to emerge successful.
There was no glory to be had in the Do or Die raids as the raiders sank rather than swam for most of the game. With both teams trading blows, the teams ended up with four or five men on the mat a lot of the time which meant that even the Bonus Point was taken out of the equation, making it harder for the teams to avoid being forced into the Do or Die raids.
There was just the one All Out in the entire game; the Bulls enforcing it, something which ultimately proved to be the difference in the end. The top performers in the game were all defenders, led by Kuldeep Singh of the Bulls with five points. Sunil Jaipal, also of the Bulls and the Paltan's Dharmaraj Cheralathan had four each to their name.
#2 Sunil Jaipal has provided a much needed shot in the arm for the Bulls
The Bulls had been floundering in Season 5 after a good start. They were amongst the bottom three in their zone and had plenty of issues that needed solving. Coach Randhir Singh's move to insert Sunil Jaipal into the starting line-up has proven to be a masterstroke so far.
The crafty all-rounder has provided a much-needed boost in both attack and defence and more importantly has proven to be a very good leader out on the mat for his side. Yesterday, against the Haryana Steelers, he starred with nine points - six on the raids and three on the tackles. He had four points from four tackles today, impressing once again.
His presence has lent more balance to this Bulls side that can certainly use his raiding ability as a fall-back when Ajay and Rohit are on the bench. His defensive prowess has also propped up the capability of their overall defence.
As he did yesterday against the Steelers' Prashant Kumar Rai, he effected a superb solo frontal tackle on Pune's captain Deepak Niwas Hooda to truly lay down a marker.
#3 Haryana Steelers find themselves unbalanced
The Steelers' defence is the strong foundation on which much of their success has been based. Their raiders have no doubt come good, but the defence is upon whom their game is built/
That being the case, it was rather odd to see the Steelers look edgy and unsure of themselves on the mat tonight while defending. A couple of self-outs helped their opponents out on crucial raids. On one raid, Rajesh Kumar's clumsy footwork saw him step on the toes of his partner in the chain, Prashant Kumar Rai, and take both of them off the court to gift two easy points to the Telugu Titans.
Prashant being a leading raider for the Steelers was lost as a result through no fault of his own. They were lucky to escape with another self-out that was seemingly not spotted during a Super Tackle.
Jittery feet and hands were more the norm than patience and calmness on this night for the Steelers defence. It was a flat performance overall from the Steelers that led to them comfortably beaten. Prashant and Wazir Singh fired blanks in the raiding and Surender Nada and Mohit Chhillar were lethargic and error-prone in defence.
It sucked the life out of the home crowd and any chances of a Steelers win on the night.
#4 The Titans played like a side that was hurting
The Titans remember were coming off a loss where they had trailed 1-21 at one stage in their against the Puneri Paltan in their previous encounter. Despite managing to claw back into the game, they were embarrassed in the first half. It must have surely hurt and it looked like they were keen to set that right.
The non-performers in Rakesh Kumar and Vikas Kumar were dropped. Mohsen Maghsodlou started, providing a triple-threat raid team along with Rahul Chaudhari and Nilesh Salunke.
They just looked the more hungrier of the two sides on the night. Even though he scored just 10 points, Rahul showed so much more effort and energy in his raiding; something that had been missing during most of the games this campaign. He had 20 raids overall, Nilesh Salunkhe had 17 and Mohsen had 10 - a good spread overall. When Rahul doesn't spam raids out on the court, the Titans' fortunes are just so much better.
Vishal Bhardwaj turned down his hot-headedness and didn't rush into unnecessary tackles. He managed to overcome a scary-looking knock on his ankle to emerge the best defender on the night, finishing with six tackle points.
With the Bengaluru Bulls having won earlier in the night, the result was all the more important for the Titans as it helped them keep pace with the Bulls as they try to force their way into the playoff spots.
#5 Can we talk about the refereeing?
In both games today, there were once again glaring errors made by the officiating team.
During the Puneri Paltan's clash against the Bengaluru Bulls, Rajesh Mondal looked to have taken two points from a raid early in the second half. The officials had given two points, but the Bulls opted to review claiming the raider had been ushered out.
In the replay, it initially looked like it was a good challenge, but Mondal's foot was clearly still on the court when he managed to get his hand over the mid-line. It was sandwiched between the feet of the two defenders who came for him, but if one looked closely you could see it.
Somehow, the TV umpire ruled in favour of the Bulls and ruled that Mondal was out, giving one point the other way. It was a bad bit of officiating, to say the least.
In the second game, the struggling Haryana Steelers pulled off a Super Tackle on Mohsen Maghsodlou in the second half started to bring them to within 2 points at 10-12. The Titans opted to review though, claiming that Surender Nada had stepped out even before the tackle could be made.
In what was an absolute stinker, the video umpire reviewed the wrong footage entirely. The Titans were contesting that Nada had stepped out as Mohsen entered the Steelers' half for the raid. Instead, the officiating team reviewed the play only from the tackle onwards, completely missing the moment in question.
Yes, it didn't prove crucial in the grand scheme of things today in either case, but it was the most recent in a long list of shockers we've seen this season.
