Rohit Kumar’s raiding clinic ensures Chennai end home leg winless

Bengaluru Bulls piled more misery on Tamil Thalaivas by beating them 45-35 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Thursday. The loss meant that Chennai end their home leg winless as both captains top-scored for their respective teams. Rohit Kumar ended the game with a game-high 17 points, while Ajay Thakur managed 15 points.

The Bulls began the encounter by picking up points through a combination of incisive raiding from skipper Kumar and overzealous defending by the hosts. Chennai captain Thakur was doing his best to be on a par with his Bengaluru counterpart and kept his team in the game with successful raids from his opening four attempts.

The breakneck pace of the opening quarter meant that both sides had their first do-or-die raid of the evening in the 10th minute. Bengaluru’s Kumar though continued to raid successfully at will until the 15^th minute when he succumbed to a super tackle that reduced his side’s lead to 12-9. However, the hosts failed to capitalise on that opportunity as Bengaluru inflicted an All-Out on them in the penultimate minute of the half. The Bulls then consolidated and took a 19-10 lead going into the break.

The second period started following a similar pattern as Kumar brought up his Super 10 with a two-point raid to usher in a second All-Out on Chennai in the 23^rd minute and extend Bengaluru’s lead to 26-10. Chennai simply failed to match up and suffered their third All-Out of the game soon after near the half hour mark as the Bulls led 37-16.

Thakur gave the home crowd something to cheer with swift raids that helped enforce an All-Out on Bengaluru in the 36^th minute to make it 41-27. But in the end, it wasn’t enough as Kumar ran down the clock with intelligence for a comfortable victory against their southern neighbours.

Check out our snapshots from this match here.