Kolkata
Providing the home crowd with something to savour, the home team took a big stride towards securing its berth in the play-offs with a gritty 27-24 win over Thalaivas.
After staying close on the heels of the visitor for much of the first-half, the Warriors came up with a clinical effort just when it mattered to surge ahead. Indeed, the Warriors revelled in tense moments and embraced pressure, while its opponent, in keeping with how it fared this season, floundered after an encouraging start.
The Warriors’ defence which looked shaky initially grew in strength as the match wore on with captain Ran Singh and Surjeet Singh demonstrating ample nous to quell the Thalaivas’ stubborn challenge.
In a display befitting the occasion, both the teams dished out riveting fare to keep the spectators firmly engrossed with little separating them in the first half. At half-time the scoreline read 15-15.
Having already been eliminated, the Thalaivas may have had only academic interest but that didn’t stop it from giving its all against a team that defeated it twice this season. The Warriors raider Maninder Singh earned his team two points in his first raid with one touch point and a bonus point.
Thereafter the fortunes kept oscillating with neither of the teams managing to acquire a decisive lead. In the fifth minute, Thalaivas’ Sukesh Hegde bulldozed his way through the Bengal defence winning a Super Raid to put his team marginally ahead at 6-4.
That was the passage of play when the Thalaivas looked to be in the ascendancy when the impressive MS Athul succeeded in a do-or-die raid by getting the experienced Surjeet Singh out. The host’s South Korean import Jang Kun Lee, egged on by a partisan crowd, then came into his own winning a Super Raid to narrow the deficit.
Meanwhile, Hegde, almost inconspicuously, did his bit by ensuring that Thalaivas held a slender lead. Of the first 12 points for the southern team, Hegde’s share was a creditable seven. Towards the end of first-half, the Warriors pulled back level at 15-15 with a Super Tackle on Athul.
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