5 moments of brilliance from the Chennai leg

The opening leg of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 6 is done and dusted but the exciting kabaddi on display has left fans with many moments to remember. From Pawan Kumar Sehrawat’s stunning opening display to Ajay Thakur’s intense show of resilience, there were a number of times which left kabaddi fans spellbound. Here we relive a few of these remarkable moments here.

1. Ajay Thakur’s fighting comebacks

Tamil Thalaivas won their opening game against Patna Pirates but then kept conceding an early lead in their other home games. This left them in a position where they had to play catch up for a good part of the game. However, instead of feeling pressured captain Ajay Thakur took up the challenge and showed how pressure can bring the best out of him by mounting an assault on the opposition defenders. It didn’t prove to be enough but it brought his team close and helped them salvage a point even from their losses. Thakur scored 3 Super 10s and led the raiders with 60 points after his team’s home leg.

2. Siddharth Desai’s impressive U Mumba debut

Siddharth Desai emerged as the first leg’s second most successful raider with 28 raid points from 2 games. He managed to impress the onlookers in his debut game itself, scoring 14 raid points against a strong Puneri Paltan defence which boasted of Girish Maruti Ernak and Sandeep Narwal. 12 of his 14 points came as touch points and helped his team revive a player which shows the quality of the raider. He had a streak of 6 successful raids right at the start of the game which was the most majestic debut he could have asked for.

3. Pawan Kumar Sehrawat’s 5-point Super Raid

Pawan Kumar Sehrawat is another youngster who took the kabaddi world by storm in just his team’s first Season 6 game. After 5 successful raids, one of which was a 3-point Super Raid, Sehrawat was finally sent to the bench by the Tamil Thalaivas defence. But once he was revived he was simply unstoppable, helping himself to a 5-point Super Raid after successfully executing a masterful Dubki. He surveyed the position of the incoming defenders to perfection and found the small gap between their chain to escape toward the midline.

4. Ashish Kumar and Mahender Singh’s Super Tackle

Pressure brings out the best in some players and Ashish Kumar from Bengaluru Bulls seems to be one of them. The defender helped himself to two consecutive Super Tackles against Tamil Thalaivas but the latter of them was extremely impressive. With just Mahender Singh to support, Kumar initiated a tackle on Ajay Thakur but failed to get a firm enough hold on his legs. However, Singh was quick to leap off the ground and hold Thakur down. While Thakur could still have escaped, Kumar came in to support him at the right time and the duo managed to pull Thakur back and maintain their team’s control over the match which eventually took them to a victory.

5. Pardeep Narwal’s rescue act against U.P. Yoddha

After facing defeat against home team Tamil Thalaivas in their opening game, Patna Pirates fought till the end against U.P. Yoddha in a tough match. They were trailing till late in the game but captain Pardeep Narwal was in no mood to give in. He put in back-to-back successful raids and then, once his team took the lead he took up the responsibility of running down the clock. Instead of going for more points he took up the team’s cause and returned empty-handed with minimal risks which eventually gave his team a 2-point win. This was a good display of team strategy over individual gameplay at work.