Kolkata: Bengaluru Bulls led by the omnipresent Manjeet Chillar beat Puneri Paltan 31-26 in the Pro Kabaddi League today at Netaji Indoor Stadium. This was their third win which gives them 15 points and a third place on the table. Pune by virtue of one point they gained today for keeping the margin to less than 7 points. Pune in fact led at one stage by six points (10-4) after inflicting a ‘lona’ over their opponents. At half-time Pune led by 13-12.

Giving Manjeet admirable support in attack were Rajesh Mondal and newcomer Ashish Chhokar. The tall raider used his height and reach to maximum advantage to put his side on the victory path. Ashish came up with one super raid (3 points) early in the first half followed by a couple of bonus points to keep his side afloat. Both the sides were good in defence as they felt that in the absence of quality raiders that was the only option to win.

Pune are yet to find another raider as a foil for Wazir but after Prawin Nivale’s good show in the last match the comeback man failed to do anything of note and was replaced in the second half. Bengaluru came back after they succeeded in putting Wazir out for a long time. That hurt Pune decisively and when Manjeet forced Sagar to a self out Pune were eft with two on the field. Very soon the Bulls inflicted the all out for a 21-18 lead. A super raid by Ashish wherein he claimed 3 points took the match away from their rivals. The score was 27-21 t that time.

Wazir came up with some inspired play but besides netting a couple of points to take his tally to 7 points and that was that. The introduction of the tall Amit Rathi helped Pune in achieving what they intended at that stage. He grabbed a couple of bonus points to keep the margin down and pocket one point as a consolation. Pune now occupy sixth spot in the table.

[module-214]