Kabaddi
PKL 2021: Bengaluru Bulls defeat Jaipur Pink Panthers 38-31
Pawan Sehrawat's stunning show helped the Bengaluru Bulls defeat Jaipur Pink Panthers 38-31.
Bengaluru Bulls thrashed the Jaipur Pink Panthers with a scoreline of 38-31 in match 37. Pawan Kumar Sehrawat's storm victimized Jaipur's defence displaying another raiding masterclass. Bengaluru Bulls are now on the top of the PKL points table with 28 match-points from seven games.
As it happened........
A couple of changes from the Jaipur Pink Panthers side were expected as they brought two Tamil defenders Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Elavarasan in the Starting 7. Coach Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan finally took a hard decision to drop Nitin Rawal who has been off-colour since the start of season eight. Bengaluru Bulls gave a surprise start to Deepak Narwal. It was a calculated decision by gaffer Randhir Singh Sehrawat to play the raider who was part of the Pink Panthers roster last season.
Jaipur Pink Panthers entered the match in blue away kits. The first five minutes of the first half were dominated by defensive departments of both sides where not a single raid point was scored. Jaipur defence captured Pawan Kumar Sehrawat consecutive times in his first two raids of the game. Pawan quickly bounced back by inspiring Bengaluru to force an all-out and gaining a hefty eight-point lead. The Bulls seized the first half action on a 20-14 scoreline with Pawan's contribution of 14 points.
Randhir Singh Sehrawat brought two substitutes, Amit Sheoran and GB More for the second half. The red army was on verge of conceding all-out but the defensive contributions of both substitutes saved the franchise from the crisis. The rest of the work was done by the storm of Pawan Kumar Sehrawat lashing second all-out over the Rajasthan-based franchise. Although Jaipur did manage to force all-out on the relaxed Bengaluru side in the dying minutes of the game.
Takeaways from the clash
It was Pawan Kumar Sehrawat's day all the way. The outrageous captain of Bengaluru Bulls scored a tally of 18 points tonight including 17 raid points from 25 attempts.
Jaipur's young raiding sensation Arjun Deshwal continued his streak of scoring Super 10s in every season eight game. Arjun was only performing Pink Panther of the fixture with 13 points from 19 raids. He revived Jaipur's position in the last minutes to minimise the losing margin to 7 points.