Pro Kabaddi: Jang Kun shines for Bengal in their second successive win

Having replaced the ineffective Mahendra Rajput in the 8th minute, Jang made his presence felt only after his team suffer an all-out to trail 8-13 in the 16th minute. He responded with a couple of points in a do-or-die raid and helped his team narrow the gap at 12-13 in the first half which was evenly contested. While Amit Rathi scored four, Deepak Dahiya pocketed two points to the tally with one heart stopping flying hand touch, a technique seldom seen on court. Jang’s pyrotechnics which were to prove decisive gave his team four including one bonus points.

The Bengal Warriors defence which is their forte started the proceedings through a timely tackle on Surjeet Narwal. That blow, in the very first raid of the match for the home team unnerved the burly raider known as the flying machine. He and Amit Rathi were off the Amit had to cool his head as well as heels for as many as 15 minutes after he got out in the 16th minute of play. Girish had a good match and so did his partner in crime Nilesh Shinde.

Girish scored five tackle points while his captain Nilesh had three with one super tackle. If Jang sizzled for the winners with 11 points, the newcomer, 21-year old army man Nitin Tomar showed why he is a good prospect pocketing seven points in his own cool but effective way. Bajirao Hodage was error prone and the Bengal Warriors should consider themselves lucky not to have been punished.

Jang delivered the knock-out blow in the 35th minute of play. Surjeet and Deepak Dahiya had raised the home crowd’s hopes even after facing an all-out. They had earlier frittered away a 20-16 lead to trail 21-22 thereafter. But Jang who had started the revival by kicking Shrikant Tewthia out came up with two good raids which fetched a couple of points each to end the argument. At 29-22 with less than three minutes left all that his team had to do was not to throw it away. Jang ended the contest with a couple of points off the last raid to rub salt in the opponents’ wounds.

With this win the winners jumped to the second spot displacing neighbours Patna Pirates. Both have ten points as Telugu Titans still top the table. Bengaluru lie in seventh place with 5 points from a solitary win.

Report courtesy Pro Kabaddi media.