PKL-12: After 4 consecutive wins, Bulls suffer defeat as Tamil Thalaivas clinch a 6-point victory in the Southern Derby in Jaipur
Riding on brilliant performances from Arjun Deshwal (13 points) and their defense (10 points), Tamil Thalaivas defeated Bengaluru Bulls 35-29 in the 36th match of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 12, played at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium on Tuesday. After four consecutive losses, the Bulls suffered another defeat, while the Thalaivas strengthened their campaign with a second successive victory.
The Bulls have now lost four out of their eight matches, whereas the Thalaivas registered their third win in five games. Apart from Deshwal, Narender Kandola (5 points) also contributed in attack, while in defense Raunak (4), Nitesh (3), and Himanshu (3) put on impressive performances. For the Bulls, Alireza Miraján (10) once again showed his sparkle, but with no solid support from others, the Bulls missed the chance to notch a five-match winning streak.
In this second clash of Rivalry Week, the Thalaivas matched the Bulls point for point, tied at 3-3 after four minutes of play. Thalaivas’ defense ousted both Alireza and previous match hero Ganesh. Meanwhile, Ahmadreza earned a two-point raid to revive both of them and hand the Bulls a 6-5 lead. The Thalaivas quickly responded with two points to make it 7-6, but Yogesh tackled Shafaqi to level it 7-7.
Thalaivas scored two more points to make it 9-7 by the 10-minute mark. After the first break, Kandola pushed the Bulls into a super tackle situation, but Ganesh responded with a two-point raid that turned the score to 9-10 in Bulls’ favor. Yogesh then dismissed Deshwal and equalized. With two more points, the Bulls again put Thalaivas into a super tackle situation. Crucially, all of Thalaivas’ main raiders were off the mat.
On Ganesh’s raid, Suresh self-outed. The Bulls led 13-10 with just two Thalaivas players on the mat. In a single raid, Alireza cleared the remaining players, giving the Bulls a 17-11 lead. After the all-out, the Bulls pinned down Deshwal, and Alireza added two more points, but Kandola hit back with a two-point raid, making it 14-20 by halftime. After the break, Deshwal scored a bonus, and Suresh tackled Ganesh to bring the margin down to four.
Deshwal then pushed the Bulls into a super tackle threat. Himanshu dismissed Ganesh, edging them toward an all-out, and converted it to take a 26-23 lead. In this phase, Deshwal completed his Super 10. After the timeout, Deshwal stretched the lead to 4, but Alireza narrowed it again. In the last five minutes, Thalaivas maintained a five-point cushion, which stayed intact until the final three minutes.
Ganesh earned a point on his raid to reduce the gap to four, and Alireza cut it further to three. Thalaivas at this stage played with a strong defense of five, denying the Bulls any bonus points, with less than two minutes left. On a do-or-die raid, Deshwal dismissed Alireza, and the Thalaivas defense then tackled Ganesh, sealing a convincing win for Tamil Thalaivas.
Tamil Thalaivas have registered back to back victory under new captain Arjun Deshwal especially after Pawan Sehrawat have been released by the franchise.
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