Tamil Thalaivas goes down to Bengaluru Bulls 22-36

After finishing second best to Bengal Warriors on the opening night, Bulls notched up its first home win of the season. The victory pushes it to 46 points from 12 games, which is eight more than what second-placed Patna Pirates has. Thalaivas remains at the bottom of the pile with 25 points from 14 games.

Rohit Kumar led his side from the front in the ‘Southern derby’, picking up a ‘Super 10’. All the other members of the Bengaluru starting seven chipped in with at least a point as well. Bulls inflicted the first all-out in the 9th minute, with Manjeet Chhillar surrendering as he was the last man standing for the away side.

Thalaivas defenders, who were quiet, suddenly came to life in the closing stages of the opening half, picking up a couple of tackle points in quick succession. The host led by five points as both teams headed in for a breather. The tourist trailed 12-17 going into the all-important second half. After the restart, both teams played on the ‘Do or Die’ raids, but that strategy did not turn out to be fruitful. Bengaluru was in the ascendancy by a margin of nine points as teams approached the final stretch. Thalaivas defensive duo of Manjeet and C Arun pulled off a ‘Super tackle’ on Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, reducing the deficit to six points.

The visitor crawled its way back into the contest, with Bulls having only a four-point edge in the 33rd minute. But, Bengaluru affected the second all-out of the match in the 37th minute, denying any sort of a comeback from the Chennai-based team.

In the other match of the day, U Mumba completed a convincing 39-23 win over Dabang Delhi to become the front runner in Zone A. Fazel Atrachali’s men now have 62 points from 16 games, which include 11 victories. They had been displaced by Gujarat Fortunegiants at the top a couple of days ago.

U Mumba had a slender one-point advantage around the six-minute mark. It had a stranglehold from there on, dominating the second phase of the first half. With the fixture taking place in a Maharashtrian city, the crowd without a doubt pledged its allegiance towards U Mumba. Delhi was handed the first all-out of the game in the 17th minute as U Mumba defenders hunted in numbers to bring down Meraj Sheykh.