Bengaluru: A sensational second-half display from Pawan Sehrawat and the defence helped the Bengaluru Bulls beat the Puneri Paltan 40-29 and ascend to the top of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 8 points table here on Sunday.
The Bulls outscored the Paltan 27-11 in the second half, with Sehrawat managing 10.
The game was tightly contested in the opening ten minutes, with the highlight being Chandran Ranjit’s brilliant Super Raid. Mohit Goyat’s sensational jump and Sanket Sawant’s incredible Dash on Sehrawat turned the tide in the Paltan’s favour. Ranjit continued his excellent work, but the rest of the Bulls looked flat, enabling the Paltan to inflict an All Out and take a six-point lead.
The Bulls responded with three unanswered points, but the Paltan outscored them 3-1 in a final couple of minutes of the first half to go into the halftime break leading by five.
The Paltan inched closer towards inflicting an All Out as they reduced the Bulls to three players on the mat. But Bengaluru’s defence and raider Bharat combined to score five unanswered to level the scores. Sehrawat then went to work, quickly picking up two raid points and reducing the Paltan to a solitary man. The Bulls’ defence pinned the raider down to inflict an All-Out on the Paltan and take a three-point lead.
Sehrawat and the Bulls’ defence added five more unanswered points to their team’s total, pushing Bengaluru’s lead up to eight. Aslam Inamdar finally ended the Bulls’ surge with a touchpoint, but the Paltan’s defence had no answer for Sehrawat, who tagged two more defenders on his way to the midline to leave the Paltan with just Pawan Kadian on the mat.
The Bulls’ defence made short work of the raider, pinning him down to inflict another All-Out on the Paltan and help their side take a 12-point lead. The Paltan tried to mount a comeback in the final five minutes, but the Bulls matched them point-for-point right until the last raid of the match to win comfortably.
