Second half sprint hands Gujarat Fortunegiants a win over Tamil Thalaivas

A blitzkrieg at the start of the second half, that saw them outscore Tamil Thalaivas by nine points in the first 10 minutes of that period, handed Gujarat Fortunegiants a 36-25 win at the Patliputra Indoor Stadium in Patna on Friday. Raider Sachin got his first Super 10 of the campaign while Parvesh Bhainswal led the way for his team in defence with four tackle points.

The first half was a closely-fought contest with neither team allowing their opponent to build a substantial lead. Gujarat Fortunegiants seemed to be pulling away early on in the contest, taking a 5-3 lead but were quickly stopped in their tracks by a two-point raid from veteran Jasvir Singh.

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The rest of the half was a back-and-forth affair with raiders Sachin and Ajay Kumar replying to everything that Ajay Thakur and his raiders threw at Gujarat Fortunegiants. With the score tied at 13-13, Sachin got a bonus and a touch point on Manjeet Chhillar to get a two-point raid. Sachin and Ajay Kumar combined to score 10 raid points in the first half for their team as the half ended with Gujarat Fortunegiants leading 16-14.

The second half was a complete opposite of the first, with Gujarat Fortunegiants switching gears and outscoring Tamil Thalaivas 13-4 in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The run was courtesy of some outstanding raiding from Sachin, as he sent three Tamil Thalaivas men to the bench. He was well supported in defence by Ruturaj Koravi, who got both Thakur and Athul MS to reduce Tamil Thalaivas to just one player on the mat. Gujarat Fortunegiants allowed Surjeet Singh a bonus but tackled the raider and inflicted the first and only All-Out of the match on Tamil Thalaivas in the 7^th minute.

With the score at 29-18 in Gujarat Fortunegiants’ favour, Tamil Thalaivas tried their best to overturn the deficit, starting with Thakur sending both Sunil Kumar and Mahendra Rajput to the bench. But Sachin continued his outstanding work on the night and got a touch point on Chhillar to defuse any momentum that Tamil Thalaivas tried to build.

With the Tamil Thalaivas raiders desperate to score points to get their team back in the game, Gujarat Fortunegiants’ defence came to the party and took full advantage of the situation, allowing the raiders to venture deep into their half and picking up solid tackles.

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Koravi and Parvesh Bhainswal tackled Thakur and Athul respectively in back-to-back raids and captain Sunil Kumar got two tackle points of his own as the three combined to score nine tackle points on the night. Bhainswal got the final point of the match by tackling Athul as the clock expired and Gujarat Fortunegiants secured their second win of the campaign.