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The last day of the Ranchi leg had two mouth-watering contests in store for fans of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 as the Haryana Steelers faced Jaipur Pink Panthers minus their star raider Jasvir Singh while home team Patna Pirates took on struggling UP Yoddha.
It was difficult to separate the two teams in the first game as both rode on some exceptional defending to stay in the hunt for the major part of the match before the Steelers narrowly edged ahead to get a four-point win over the Panthers. In the other match of the day, led by a phenomenal Nitin Tomar who racked up 18 points on the night, UP Yoddha ended Patna Pirates' unbeaten home run and avenged their defeat at the hands of Patna a few days ago.
Here are the five talking points from the 48th day of Season 5 of Pro Kabaddi League.
#1 Confident Chhillar's surprise move
Captain Chhillar was back in the team and if anybody missed his comeback in the last few matches, he made them notice his presence first up on Thursday. He was in action when he brought Pawan down to get his team the first points of the day with a brilliant ankle hold.
Next up, buoyed by his tackling success and in a move that surprised many, he was busy taking the raid for the Panthers. While Chhillar often has raided for his team but seeing him raiding so early in the match definitely made some heads turn.
Although he made an empty raid, he succeeded in making his intentions clear. Despite his team finishing second in the contest, he was in his elements on the night. He came good twice in the first half when in 15th minute and 17th minute when he brought down Wazir Singh with some fine tackles.
Not just that, Chillar was flexible with his position on the mat and always attacked the raider in the first half. He was even good with the review on the night, a part of the game he has traditionally struggled with.
#2 Nada's presence of mind saves the day
In a first half that was so intensely fought that scores were leveled on seven occasions, Tushar Patil put the Panthers ahead with a fabulous super raid effort. Manjeet Chhillar piled on the misery by getting a tackle point on the Steelers' next raid attempt and, for once, it seemed the Steelers had been left behind in the contest.
But a defender par excellence and a much-improved leader now, Surender Nada had other thoughts. In a super tackle opportunity, Nada first brought down the raider, lost control of him and then rose back to put the raider's dangling hand away from the mid line while he was being tackled by his fellow defenders. This was the window of opportunity that Haryana needed to come back into the game and they did come back strongly to end the first half at level pegging.
#3 The second defence rises up
Despite a lead of four points with seven minutes to go, Haryana Steelers didn't look the most confident side. It was mainly because a super tackle opportunity lay wanting and they didn't have either Mohit Chhillar or Surender Nada on the mat to get them those points. Even Vikas was warming the bench and that meant no defender was on the mat when Nitin Rawal came to take the raid.
But Wazir Singh, who had a fine night with his raiding, rode his luck to land an excellent tackle to get two points for the team with a Super Tackle. More than the two points, what Wazir Singh's effort did was that it revived a man for the Steelers and with it killed Jaipur's dreams of coming back into the match with an All Out. From there on, the Steelers didn't look back and secured a well-deserved win in the end.
#5 Patna defence the culprit again
Dependent on their raiding department throughout the season due to a misfiring defence, Patna Pirates looked clueless on Thursday when their raiding came to a cropper against UP Yoddha in the first half. Both Pardeep Narwal and Monu Goyat kept making failed raid attempts as the Yoddha raiders kept nicking bucketful of points.
Rishank Devadiga and Nitin Tomar weren't extraordinary with their raiding but still managed to get easy points due to a pathetic defensive display, not for the first time in Season 5, by the Patna Pirates.
When the raiders did start coming good in the second half, it was too late as the likes of Vishal Mane, Sachin Shingade and Jawahar Dagar had again put in a flop show to nullify all the gains achieved by Narwal and young Vijay in the second half of the game.
#5 Young Vijay sizzles but can't win it for his team
Not too far away from Ranchi, a young man in yellow jersey made the Indian cricket team sweat despite finding little support from anyone and finally finishing up on the losing side. Just like Marcus Stoinis whose brilliance proved inconsequential in the larger context of the game, young Vijay of Patna Pirates also provided his team hope when it all looked hopeless for his team with a super raid in the 24th minute of the match.
With both his more famous peers Monu Goyat and Pardeep Narwal on the bench, Vijay came on to raid when his team was behind by 16 points in the game. Attacking the right corner, he made a successful retreat to midline when he overcame several pouncing defenders of UP Yoddha. In the process, he made a Super Raid, which he turned into a four-pointer by getting it reviewed. T
hat began a passage of play where Patna threatened a comeback by quickly reducing the deficit to 7 points before Nitin Tomar, electrifying on the night, picked his own four-point Super Raid to push the match beyond Patna’s reach.
