PKL 2019 | How Dabang Delhi got the better of Bengaluru Bulls to register their first win at home
PKL
Dabang Delhi KC are off to a winning start at their home as they came from behind to defeat defending champions Bengaluru Bulls in a keenly-contested game on Saturday. Naveen Kumar, their regular performer of the season, made all the difference alongside Meraj Sheykh and the experienced defenders.
Advance blocks, the key to stop Pawan Sehrawat
The Delhi defenders have shown a way to the other teams of the league the way to stop rampaging Pawan Sehrawat who is having a great run for the second consecutive PKL season. The advance blocks and the combined defence performance by Dabang Delhi was one of the major reasons for their success in the last game against the defending champions. Vishal Mane and Ravinder Pahal had their intentions clear from the very beginning of the game to try and stop Pawan with their advance tackles and that paid off towards the end of the game. It was Mane who got Delhi up and running with a solo block against Pawan in the fourth minute of the match.
Pahal, at the right corner of the mat, also followed the trend as he was seen coming with an intention of guarding the raider’s return path whenever the latter had gone too deep at the other side of the mat. After a few of these moves in both the halves, Pahal came up with the most important tackle of the match when there were only three minutes to go. The right corner came for an advance tackle again against Pawan and the ankle hold, way ahead of the baulk line, reduced the Bulls to only one man and Naveen found it easy to get a touch in the next raid. The all-out also meant that Delhi were in the lead for the first time in the game.
© PKLNaveen Kumar performs at the right time
There is no doubt that Naveen Kumar is the best performer for the team from the national capital for the last two seasons. The young raider went on to register yet another Super 10 in the ongoing league but most importantly, he collected points for Delhi when those mattered the most in the last few minutes of the game.
In the start of the game last evening, Naveen kept on being sensible and being content with bonus points. We can also make a case against the Bengaluru defence that they were not proactive enough against the Delhi raider in the first half as well as in the initial passage of the second half. Naveen used to get easy bonus points right under the nose of Amit Sheoran at the left side of the defence and remained on the mat for the maximum amount of time as well. However, things changed in the second half of the match as Naveen collected touch points in almost every raid in the last seven minutes which wiped the Bulls apart and turned the game in Delhi’s favour as well.
With less than five minutes to go and a four-point difference in Bengaluru’s favour, Naveen had come for a do or die raid. The 19-year-old didn’t look under any kind of pressure and managed to escape the ankle hold by Sheoran and dash by Mahender Singh which gave Delhi two important points. In the next raid, he caught Saurabh Nnandal napping at the right corner and returned quickly. He not only completed his Super 10 in that raid but also reduced the margin to only one. Again in the next one, he got rid of cover defender Ashish Sangwan who was attempting a block with three defenders on the mat.
After Pawan had got touches on Joginder Narwal and Mane in the same raid, Naveen was under some pressure in the next one with three defenders on the mat and two minutes to go in the game. However, he kept on shuffling in front of Sheoran and eventually got a touch and brought Delhi back in the lead.
© PKLMeraj Sheykh’s inclusion in the second half pays off
Delhi looked completely out of place in the first few minutes and 11 minutes into the match, they got all-out. Naveen was decent with the raids as he kept on accumulating bonus points which kept Delhi somewhere in the hunt. However, he was not getting any support from his partner Chandran Ranjit and eventually, seven minutes into the second half, Meraj Sheykh was brought into the mat in place of Ranjit. This decision by Krishan Kumar Hooda clicked for Dabang Delhi as the Iranian all-rounder went for some quick raids and increased the tempo of the game.
In his first raid of the match, Sheykh got a quick touch point through a kick on right corner Nandal. The all-rounder, who had played the most important role for the resurrection of the team in the home leg last year, scored five total points and turned the game in their favour. One of his important raids of yesterday’s game came in the last couple of minutes where he got rid of Vijay and also collected a bonus point to give Delhi a three-point cushion.
The Iranian, more often than not, has spent time outside the mat in the seventh season but looking at his performance and the impact that he had on the game against the defending champions, he might get preference ahead of Vijay in the raiding department.
