Dabang Delhi staged a stunning comeback, erasing a 13-point deficit to clinch a hard-fought 45-43 win over the Tamil Thalaivas 45-43 in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 match at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. Dabang Delhi’s Ashu Malik was the hero of the night as the star raider finished with 18 raid points. Narender Hoshiyar starred with 18 raid points for Tamil Thalaivas.
Tamil Thalaivas got off to a flying start, inflicting an All-out on Dabang Delhi within the first five minutes of the game. Narender ripped through the Dabang Delhi defense, and the raiders were on fire as the Tamil Thalaivas took a 9-2 lead. Ashan Kumar’s team was outstanding in every way, and their domination was on full display when they secured another All-out in the 15th minute and jumped to a commanding 22-9 lead. Dabang Delhi, who had already qualified for the playoffs, struggled to get going, with skipper Ashu the only one who kept the scoreboard ticking. The defense performed poorly, allowing several scores as the Tamil Thalaivas led 25-14 at halftime.
Ashu’s men made a strong start to the second half, inflicting an All-out in the 24th minute to cut their deficit to just 5 points at 25-20. However, their aspirations of making a comeback were destroyed by Narender’s excellent raiding. The youngster starred with a multi-point raid, scored a Super 10, and led his team to produce an All-out, which gave them a 12-point advantage at 34-22. While it appeared that the odds were stacked against them, Dabang Delhi made an incredible comeback. Meetu Sharma launched a fantastic raid, and Ashu switched gears as Dabang Delhi secured an All-out at 33-38 with 6 minutes remaining.
What followed was a raiding masterclass from Ashu, who outscored every Tamil Thalaivas defender to tie the game at 38-38, followed by a superb tackle from Manu on Narender in the 39th minute, giving Dabang Delhi an All-out and a 43-42 advantage. Ashu scored his 18th point of the game in the final raid, propelling him to the top of the leaderboard for the season’s best raider, and Dabang Delhi bounced back to winning ways.
In another encounter, Puneri Paltan edged past Bengal Warriors 29-26 to top the table. Akash Shinde starred for the Paltans with a Super 10 while Pankaj Mohite chipped in with 6 points. Nithin Kumar and Maninder Singh scored 5 points and 4 points respectively for Bengal, but their efforts proved futile as they lost the game in front of their home support.
