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The Kolkata leg came to a close on Thursday night with a thriller of an encounter wherein the home team, the Bengal Warriors settled for a 31-31 tie against Dabang Delhi. This fifth season in the Pro Kabaddi League has been quite exciting giving the scale of unpredictability about the results which has risen by a huge margin given the entry of the four new teams into the league.
The hosts, Bengal Warriors had a mixed run in their home leg, notching up a couple of wins initially, playing out two draws while also succumbing to two losses in a total of six matches.
The leg also saw the beginning of the second Inter-Zone Challenge Week which brought to the fore, even more, edge-of-the-seat fixtures, much to the delight of the audience.
In most matches, there was raid fest from either shore and we were treated to some of the best display of attacking skills ranging from the high kicks, running hand touches, toe touches, frog jumps to the dubkis! Many raiders came to the fore and Sportskeeda looks at the best five ones who left their mark on the kabaddi mat at the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium.
#5 Wazir Singh (Haryana Steelers)
The experienced campaigner had a larger role to play in the attack in the last few matches due to the injury to the teams' lead raider Vikas Kandola. And the veteran raider gave glimpses of his attacking best which one could relay back to his performance from the first season.
He thus spearheaded the attack for the Steelers especially in the match against the Gujarat Fortunegiants when the team was down by 12 points at one point, enabling them to stage a comeback and eventually alongside the heroics of Prashant Rai getting the all important win as well.
In the next match against the Bengal Warriors, Wazir showed his class with a stellar Super Raid when he made his way to the midline, sending four Bengal players to the bench in one go. Overall, Wazir averaged 8.5 raid points in the Kolkata leg which gave the Steelers an edge over their rivals.
#4 Meraj Sheykh (Dabang Delhi)
The Iranian captain has been on point for the Delhi side not only as their lead raider but also in the capacity of an able captain. He has a plethora of skills in his arsenal ranging from the swift hand touches to the back kicks which he uses to perfection to leave the rival defence hapless on many instances.
In the clash against the Bengaluru Bulls, in the last few matches of the match, Meraj set the mat on fire with a couple of two point raids and ultimately inflicted an all-out which put the team in advantage. Then against the Bengal Warriors, when it looked like Delhi was losing the plot, Meraj turned the match yet again with a two point raid, getting past Bhupender Singh and Anil Kumar's tackle attempt before picking up an injury which relegated him to the bench. Delhi went on to settle the match for a tie while Meraj finished the leg with a total of 19 points to his credit.
#3 Sachin (Gujarat Fortunegiants)
Gujarat may have lost both their matches in Kolkata but the star raider did not fail to impress as he continued his stellar form. His ability to get the swift hand touches and the bonus points ensured that he notched up yet another Super-10 in the match against the Haryana Steelers wherein he got the better off of both the defensive stalwarts Surender Nada and Mohit Chhillar.
In the clash against Jaipur, Sachin again put forth a good performance with the maximum raid points for his side and thus finished the leg with an average of 10 points per match.
#2 Maninder Singh (Bengal Warriors)
The comeback man came into his very own during the home leg powering the team with his spectacular raiding, which included four Super-10 outings out of the six matches. He left most defences hapless with his strides, amassing 66 points in total, thus ending the leg with an average of 11 points per match.
What was the reason behind his success? Maninder shed some light on that when he said that, "I rested well during the Mumbai leg and it helped me give a fresh performance in Kolkata. Moreover, continuous hard work and practise with a lot of focus helped me achieve a good performance for I was at my best fitness level."
#1 Pardeep Narwal (Patna Pirates)
Rampant is an understatement for this raider, for he has been shattering records every now and then in the league, sending a statement of intent that Patna Pirates may just clinch their third title in a row riding on the back of his efforts.
He reached 100 raid points with an innings of massive 21 points against the Jaipur Pink Panthers. What made that performance even more special was the fact that he was successful in every attempt except one, which is a testament to his talent and skills.
In the previous match, he picked up 11 points in a losing cause against the Bengal Warriors, thus emerging as the most successful raider with 32 points from just a couple of matches.
