Bengaluru Bulls beat arch-rivals Tamil Thalaivas 33-27 in a Pro Kabaddi League Season 7 contest at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday.

The credit of the win goes to Pawan Sehrawat. The raider secured a Super 10 (17 raid points) as the defending champions clinched their first win at home this season against a disjointed Thalaivas unit in front of a packed audience at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

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A closely contested first half saw both teams matching each other in all departments but the home side upped their game in the second half with Pawan Sehrawat becoming more influential. A Super Tackle by Mohit Sehrawat in the third minute of the second half, followed by a two-point raid by Pawan opened up a 4-point lead for the Bulls.

But yet again, the team with the higher numbers could not force an All-Out, with Ajith Kumar coming in to pull off an important raid to keep Thalaivas alive. The Chennai-based unit inched closer to Bulls when Sagar and Mohit Chhillar produced two Super Tackles.

But Pawan had other plans and his multi-point raids finally led to an All-Out for Thalaivas with just four minutes remaining on the clock. The 7-point cushion the All-Out offered was all that the Bulls defence (marshalled by Amit Sheoran who secured a High 5) wanted as the defending champions saw out the final minutes to clinch an important win at home to move to the third spot in the points table.

Earlier at the same venue, UP Yoddha had produced a defensive masterclass to outfox Bengal Warriors 32-29.

Nitesh Kumar with a High 5 was the star in the Yoddha defence, which tackled this season’s best raiding unit out of the match.

Warriors raced to a quick start with their raiding trio of Maninder Singh, K Prapanjan and Mohammad Nabibakhsh looking in form. The Bengal side went into the match as the best raiding unit in Season 7 (19.8 average raid points) and quickly took the lead.
The UP side had the momentum with them in the early minutes of the second half with Shrikant Jadhav producing an important two-point raid in the third minute, taking out Rinku Narwal and K. Prapanjan. Three minutes later, Yoddha sealed an All-Out to move to a two-point lead (19-17).

Yoddha’s defensive pair of Nitesh Kumar and Sumit were in outstanding form, not allowing Maninder and Prapanjan a chance to pick up points while at the other end, Baldev Singh, who secured a High 5, and Rinku Narwal were equally impressive for the Warriors’ defence.

Yoddha moved to a three-point lead with less than three minutes left on the clock after Warriors floundered in a Do-Or-Die situation. The defence ensured that Yoddha remained focused till the end to seal an important victory and avenge their 31-point defeat at the hands of Warriors earlier in the season.

(With inputs from IANS)