Pro Kabaddi League 2015 - Bengal Warriors Lose the Plot in the Final Minute against Telegu Titans

Bengal Warriors, on the back of winning a close game over the defending champions, had momentum on their side along with the home crowd. Looking to impress in Pro Kabaddi League 2015, Dinesh Kumar stepped in to raid. Eager to earn points, he was looking for a toe touch but was dashed off the court by the Telegu Titans defense. Early on in the game, Telugu Titans had built a 3 point lead and in stepped Jang Kun Lee for a do-or-die-raid. Guess what? He touched Rahul Chaudhari, the Titans most successful raider, to earn a point for his side. Now it was a do-or-die-raid for Telegu Titans and Meraj Sheykh was handed the responsibility. Looking for a touch point with a back kick, he was caught in a thigh-hold by Sachin Khambe. In the 12^th minute, Deepak Nivas Hudda came to raid and with already 3 points in his kitty, he looked on song. Parveen Jangra had other ideas as he tackled him from behind with support from his defense to level the score at 6-6. Not only was Deepak Nivas Hudda raiding successfully, he also contributed to the Telegu Titans’ defense with an ankle of his own on Sunil Jaipal. Sachin Khambe hates the stench of defeat and loves the perfume of victory as he tackled Sukesh Hegde with an ankle hold to put his side 3 points ahead. As the score read 13-10, Jang Kun Lee stepped in to raid. Looking for a toe touch, he got away from an unsuccessful ankle hold and in his momentum managed to touch 2 more of Telegu Titans’ defenders to earn 3 points in a super raid. The 1^st half ended with Bengal Warriors having a comfortable 6 point lead. They looked to be in cruise control of this match and wanted to make it 2 out of 2 at home. Even Charu Sharma gave a standing applause to the home side on their 1^st half performance.

The 2^nd half of this enthralling Pro Kabaddi League 2015 match started on a fantastic note with Prashant Rai coming in to raid. He managed to get away from a Dinesh Kumar tackle to earn his side 2 points and more importantly get rid of a top player in Dinesh Kumar. One of the moments of the match was when Jang Kun Lee came to raid. He managed to get a touch point and as he rushed back to his half, Rahul Chaudhari came barging in for his raid. That excitement was unnecessary on his part as he was caught hold of by the Bengal Warriors’ defense. At this stage the score was 18-14 in favour of Bengal Warriors. Rahul Chaudhari looked off colour but shrugged it off in style by acrobatically jumping over Nilesh Shinde to earn his side a point. With the lead diminishing down to a single point, Sunil Jaipal put in a super raid of his own to get 4 points for his side. With just 2 of Bengal Warriors defenders remaining, Deepak Nivas Hudda managed to evade Sunil Jaipal’s tackle for a successful raid. The responsibility lied on Jang Kun Lee to get atleast a point for his side while preventing an all-out but was unsuccessful. The score differential was again back to a point as we stepped into the business end of the match. In the 36^th minute, Jang Kun Lee managed a total of 3 points for his side (2 touch points and 1 bonus point) to increase Bengal Warriors’ lead to 2 points. Into the last 2 minutes and the youngster Sandeep came to the fore for Telegu Titans as he dashed off Jang Kun Lee out of the court. As we came to the penultimate raid of the match, scores were 30-29 in favour of Bengal Warriors with Rahul Chaudhari coming in to raid. He only had 1 touch point to his name until now and looked to get more for Telegu Titans. Oh what a raid it was as he managed to get 2 touch points to give the lead to his side. The score was 30-31 in favour of Telegu Titans and Sunil Jaipul stepped in to raid. This was the buzzer raid and the comeback was complete for Telegu Titans as they won the match by a mere 2 points. Jang Kun Lee seemed to get his touch back and the Bengal Warriors will be hoping for the same.

With 2 of the most difficult matches for Bengal Warriors out of the way, they will take on the most successful side of Pro Kabaddi League 2015, U Mumba. I doubt if they have enough strength to beat my home side. Only time will tell though.