Haryana bounce back with hard-earned victory over Delhi

Haryana Steelers rekindled their winning momentum at the Motilal Nehru School of Sports in Sonepat with a 27-24 win over Dabang Delhi K.C. on Tuesday. Wazir Singh was their best performer on the night with a game-high 10 points.

Wazir got the hosts on the scoreboard with a two-point raid, while Delhi had to wait till the fourth minute of the contest for their first point of the game after a successful raid by Abolfazl Maghsodlou. Both sides kept trading punches up until the ninth minute when Wazir pulled off a stunning five-point super raid to usher in an All-Out on Delhi a minute later for a 12-4 lead.

The last five minutes of the half witnessed the Steelers extend their lead on the back of some handy defensive work and clinical raiding by Deepak Kumar Dahiya as well as Surjeet Singh to take a 17-8 lead into the break.

Delhi began the second period intent on clawing back the deficit but a super tackle on Anand Patil by Haryana in the 25^th minute took some of the stuffing out of the visitors. However, Maghsodlou wasn’t having any of that and earned a two-point raid four minutes later to enforce an All-Out on the Steelers to cut the lead down to 20-17.

Haryana though managed to regroup and produce some of their best moments of the game during the final 10 minutes. Their defence was at its best and played its role to a tee by tackling the dangerous Maghsodlou. More superb tackling along with some excellent raiding by Wazir and Dahiya helped Haryana take a five-point lead into the last four minutes.

A two-point raid by Patil and a successful tackle on Wazir though all of a sudden put the cat amongst the pigeons for the hosts, who saw their lead cut down to two points with a little more than two minutes to play.

That being said, Haryana once again managed to show their resolve with successful tackles on Maghsodlou and Patil, which helped them see off Delhi’s valiant and resilient fightback, and with that they also returned to winning ways at home.

Check out our snapshots from this match here.