Sehrawat and Nandal star as Bengaluru Bulls win on opening night in Chennai

A fifth Super 10 of the season from ‘Hi-Flyer’ Pawan Sehrawat and a second career High 5 from Saurabh Nandal helped Bengaluru Bulls curb their two-match losing streak and beat Tamil Thalaivas by a scoreline of 32-21 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Sehrawat was off to an unbelievable start as he scored a point in all but two of his first seven raid attempts. The Bengaluru Bulls defence, too, starved Tamil Thalaivas’ offence for points and tackled Ajay Thakur and Shabeer Bappu as the visitors raced off to a 7-0 start. The last man on the mat for Tamil Thalaivas, Manjeet Chhillar, went in to raid and picked up a bonus to get his team off the mark, but he too was tackled as the reigning champions inflicted an All-Out in just under seven minutes.

The home side fared much better after reassembling on the mat and outscored Bengaluru Bulls 5-2 over the next five minutes to cut their deficit to seven. Shabeer’s two-point raid and Thakur’s touch point on Nandal got the momentum on Tamil Thalaivas’ side. But three unanswered points from Bengaluru Bulls put them back up by eight points. Tamil Thalaivas added two more points to their score while allowing the visitors just one as the teams headed into the half-time break with Bengaluru Bulls leading 17-10.

After a cagey seven minutes in the second period, V Ajith Kumar’s touch point, followed by a Ran Singh tackle on Rohit Kumar, saw Tamil Thalaivas cut the deficit down to just four points. Thakur and Mohit Chhillar then added two more points to their team’s score to reduce Bengaluru Bulls down to just two.

But the Season 6 champions responded with a Super Tackle followed by a two-point raid by Ankit, which extended their lead back up to six. Nandal’s tackle on Ajith Kumar not only gave him his High 5 but also reduced Tamil Thalaivas down to three men on the mat. Two more raid points from Sehrawat and a self-out from Ran Singh helped Bengaluru Bulls inflict an All-Out and take an 11-point lead.

Both teams added a couple of points to their score over the final three minutes of the contest as Bengaluru Bulls emerged victors by 11 points.

Top Performers:

Bengaluru Bulls –

Best Raider – Pawan Sehrawat (11 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Saurabh Nandal (5 Tackle Points)

Tamil Thalaivas -  

Best Raider – Ajay Thakur (4 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Ran Singh (3 Tackle Points)