Bengal Celebrate third successive victory

Bengal Warriors have been slow starters, however they have now won two matches on a trot to move up the ladder into third place. The match against Puneri Paltans was a topsy-turvy battle with Bengal Warriors winning by a hard fought 38-35 points.

Bengal raced to a 10-0 lead in the first half with Nitin and Jang producing back-to-back successful raids. The matters were made worse for Pune as Warriors Captain Nilesh Shinde led from the front, demonstrating that the best form of offense is a solid defence, on multiple occasions executing waist holds and leg traps to perfection. But Pune, who came into this match on the back of a 2 game losing streak, tried their level best to mount a comeback through captain Wazir Singh and his quartet of defenders, Manoj Kumar, Vikas Tomar and Jitesh Joshi. The team displayed their defensive skills as Pune pulled back 4 points in a row and finished the first half trailing the Warriors 14-20.

Pune seized the initiative in the second half with Mahipal Niwale taking out four Bengal players in an incredible raid earning Pune their first set of Lona points, bringing them within two points of Bengal's 27. At this point both the teams took a technical timeout. Thereafter Pune took the lead for the first time in the match with just 8 minutes left on the clock. With a 30-28 lead the visitors looked poised to take the game. Bengal brought in Farhad Kamal Gharibi, their Iranian raider and he showed why he was the crisis man, effecting a three point raid to give Bengal a one point lead over Pune's 31. The last few minutes were a seesaw battle with Pune taking the lead again with just three minutes left.

However a superb three men defence trap led by Nilesh Shinde and a silly mistake from Jitesh Joshi of Pune meant Bengal took their points to 36 against Pune's 34. A tactical defence and some cunning raids at the right times gave Bengal the last laugh.

Jang Kun Lee, the 21 year old South Korean of the Bengal side, was undoubtedly the crowd favourite. Every time he went in for a raid the ferociously partisan crowd cheered for the stocky Korean. He responded with being the most successful raider for the home team picking up 14 points and the second consecutive raider's award.

In the first match of the day, in a closely contested affair, the Patna Pirates beat Telugu Titans 38-35 with Ravi Dalal leading from the front. He was adjudged the best raider of the match and rightly so, many a time he was the sole representative of the Patna Pirates team. Waseem Sajjad was the best defender of the match. It was a battle that saw both teams fight till the very end. Rahul Chowdhari the star raider of the Telugu Titans was singled out by the Patna defence as the stand out danger man and received the harshest of treatments from a well-prepared Patna team. The tactic employed by the Patna coach R.S Khokhar seemed to have worked, as Rahul grew increasingly frustrated and even lashed out at members of the Patna anti when he was tackled to the ground yet again. His outburst earned him the first green card on the night. The Titans were defending high up the line and often did not allow the Pirates the opportunity to tag, grabbing at ankles, lunging into challenges and denying the Pirates access to the vital bonus line, which helps raiders score points even if they have failed to tag members of the anti.

This strategy seemed to work in through the first half, however defending that high up the field does have its drawbacks, it shortens the field of return for raiders, and Patna capitalised on this through Ravi Dallal and Rakesh Kumar, who as usual kept exchanging raiding duties. Together they earned their team 20 points, and were the backbone for Patna's nail-biting victory.