Thalaivas, Delhi play out a tie

Tamil Thalaivas split the points for a third time in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 as it battled to a 30-30 tie against the unbeaten Dabang Delhi here on Saturday.

Thalaivas had previously played out ties against Telugu Titans and U Mumba in the previous weeks of Pro Kabaddi. Following the result, table-topper Delhi has earned 21 points from 5 matches while the PO Surjeet Singh-captained Thalaivas is placed fifth on the standings with 14 points from the same number of fixtures as its rival.

Delhi raider Naveen Kumar, who has been in sensational form this season, picked up as many as 15 points, but could not steer his team to victory. It is to be remembered that Naveen was forced to stay away from the match for a majority of the last few minutes, which proved to be crucial.

Raider Manjeet led the Thalaivas charge with 10 points while corner defender Sagar Rathee racked up 6 tackle points. Barring Sahil Singh, all members of the Thalaivas ‘Starting 7’ earned at least two points during the contest. Thalaivas came up with a stunning turnaround in the final 10 minutes of the contest and could have ended up winning if not for a defensive mistake.

Meanwhile, U Mumba and UP Yoddha played out a hard-fought 28-28 tie to share the spoils in the opening match of the day. Raider V Ajith Kumar was the top-scorer for U Mumba with 9 points while defenders Rinku and Rahul Sethpal contributed 4 points each.

Surender Gill (8 points – 7 raid points and 1 tackle point) impressed on a night when Pardeep Narwal (4 points) was off-colour, with Sumit picking up 6 points in a stellar defensive show. In the second match on Saturday, Season 6 champion Bengaluru Bulls and the winless Telugu Titans shared the spoils in a thrilling 34-34 tie. For the first time in Pro Kabaddi history, all three matches that took place in a day ended in a tie.