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A star-studded Tamil Thalaivas were coming off a loss at the hands of the Patna Pirates and needed to win the match to improve their position on the Pro Kabaddi League 2019 points table. Similarly, the Haryana Steelers, coached by the stalwart Rakesh Kumar, also wanted to clinch a win over the Thalaivas.
Read to see how the clash between the poster boy Rahul Chaudhari from Thalaivas and Vikas Kandola from the Steelers unfolded itself at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna.
Starting 7s
Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur, Rahul Chaudhari, Shabeer Bappu, Ajeet, Mohit Chhillar, Manjeet Chhillar, Ran Singh
Haryana Steelers: Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Naveen, Vikas Kandola, Vinay, Vikas Kale, Sunil, Parveen
Toss
Haryana Steelers won the toss and chose the court.
Rahul Chaudhari started for the Thalaivas and returned empty-handed. Vikas Kandola from the Steelers scored the first bonus for his squad. After a strong start, the Steelers sent Ajay Thakur off the mat to score a point.
Rahul Chaudhari fished out the first point for the Thalaivas. With both teams going neck-to-neck, the score 7-4 was tilted in Haryana's direction in the seventh minute of the heated clash.
The defense of Haryana was on an attacking mode since the start of the match, pouncing on the raiders of Thalaivas and sending them to the bench. In a top-class two-pointer, Vikas inflicted a brilliant all-out on Tamil, giving his team a comfortable ten-point lead.
The raiders of the Steelers were on fire in the first half, diligently bagging points for their squad. Vikas Kandola and Naveen kept on pitching in crucial points for the Steelers. At the half-time, the score 19-10 was in favour of the Steelers of Haryana.
The Thalaivas made a stronger start as the second half commenced and sent the flying raider to the bench followed by which, Ajay Thakur returned with a seamless two-pointer for his squad. In an all-out for the Steelers, they reduced the score difference to three points, i.e., 23-19 on the scoreboard.
Rahul Chaudhari, doing his magic on the mat as always, fished out two points in a careful raid. A review was taken by the Thalaivas in the 30th minute of the encounter, which was eventually deemed unsuccessful.
The fast-paced match went on as the score at the 33rd minute of the clash was tied on 24 points each. Rahul also completed his Super 10 with excellence. Another all-out was inflicted on the Steelers and the Thalaivas finally gained the lead for the first time in the clash.
By inflicting a superb super tackle on Chaudhari, the Steelers made it known that they were still in the match. In the end, Tamil Thalaivas clinched a brilliant victory over the Steelers with a score of 35-28. The first half was a bit sloppy for them but they made a promising comeback and eventually won the face-off.
The Steelers, despite having a great campaign in the first half, ended up losing the lead and eventually the battle. This proves that the PKL 2019 is as tough as it can get and the proceedings in matches can dramatically turn around in the blink of an eye.
