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It has been some time since we've seen the Gujarat Fortunegiants in action. The last time we did, they were tearing through their opponents, looking every bit the best team in the competition. They resumed hostilities today as they took on the one team to have thwarted them thus far in the competition, the Haryana Steelers. And the Steelers stuck it to the Fortunegiants once more as they picked up a 42-36 win in a dramatic contest.
The second game went down to the wire too as the Bengal Warriors looked to make it two wins out of two. But they were foiled in their attempt by a UP Yoddha side that remained resolute to take three points as the game ended in a 26-26 tie.
#1 Where are the tackle points?
When you think of Gujarat Fortunegiants and Haryana Steelers, the first thing that comes to mind is the defensive strength that these two teams possess. Four of the best corners in the game feature on these two teams - the Iranian duo of Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mighani from the Fortunegiants and the Haryanvi duo of Mohit Chhillar and Surender Nada from the Steelers.
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In addition, the teams don't boast any star raiders and as such tackles do tend to dominate in such a contest. How long do you think play would go on before a successful tackle? Two minutes, five at the most? Well, guess what? This contest did not see a single tackle point for 12 minutes and 10 seconds! Yes, you read that right; in a contest between defensively strong Gujarat Fortunegiants and Haryana Steelers no tackle point was registered for a dozen minutes and 18 points on the board combined.
The man who earned the distinction of picking up the first tackle point was Abozar, with the Fortunegiants leading 10-8. The teams picked it up in the second, but that long drought in the first half was one of the reasons the game ended up being such a high-scoring contest in a battle between two teams known for their defence.
Haryana's 42 points consisted of 25 raid points and just 11 tackle points while the Fortunegiants' tally was made up of 24 raid points and just 8 from tackles.
#2 A Mohit Chhillar inspired comeback
The Gujarat Fortunegiants have been the form team in Season 5 thus far. However, if there has been one side that has troubled them, it is the Haryana Steelers. The Steelers won the first contest and the second ended in a dramatic tie.
After a patchy performance defensively, the Fortunegiants picked up the slack in the second and established an 11-point lead over their opponents, up 26-14 in just over four minutes into the second half, about to inflict a second All Out and in position to finally beat the Steelers.
Right corner Mohit Chhillar was the last man standing for the Steelers and with Haryana to raid, the coach opted to not bring a raider in and let Mohit go in for the raid. The commentators were in shock as to why the Steelers were allowing Mohit to go into raid while the Fortunegiants probably couldn't believe that the All Out was now all but a mere formality.
Mohit though had other ideas.
He took it up as a challenge, stayed calm, ate up enough time and forced the Fortunegiants into a slip-up. Sachin, Gujarat's lead raider went in for a rash tackle and Mohit retreated in time to get him out along with Abozar who came in for support. It was a defining moment in the game and perhaps THE turning point. That All Out would have surely put the game beyond reach for Gujarat, but instead two Steelers were revived and on Gujarat's next Do or Die raid, Mohit engineered a Super Tackle that further ate into the Fortunegiants' lead, just 26-18 now.
The above sequence of events sent the Fortunegiants tumbling and from being down to one and facing an All Out, the Steelers instead were the ones to force an All Out and Gujarat's lead was down to just three points at 28-25 with 10 minutes still remaining.
The Steelers didn't stop there though and used their momentum to good effect to inflict a second All Out and take the lead in the contest 35-29 with five minutes to go. Wazir Singh was brilliant, effecting both All Outs with two men on the court.
It was a 21-3 run from the Steelers in just 10 minutes. Mohit started it with that amazing raid and marshaled the defence excellently with Surender Nada on the bench cooling his heels. He even captained the side expertly with his senior partner off.
A spectacular collapse from the Fortunegiants, but also all credit to the Steelers as they refused to throw in the towel and played some brilliant kabaddi themselves, led by Mohit Chhillar.
#3 Another late show from the Warriors but no win
As the seconds ticked away in the second game of the night, Nitin Tomar was in no rush. He had just come in for the buzzer raid of the match. The scores were level, but the Yoddha captain decided that he would take the tie instead of searching for a win. It wasn't a Do or Die raid so there was no pressure on him to return with a point. The Warriors defence too wasn't exactly playing a high line and they had five men on the court.
It was a tame ending to what had until then been a close affair with the Warriors having once again made a late surge to take the lead, just as they had done yesterday against the Patna Pirates.
The Warriors had taken the lead in the game 25-24 with under 3 minutes remaining. Previously, they had led 2-1 in the very third minute of the match. After trailing all the way through, their final push seemed to have once again secured them the points.
In an edgy finish though, they conspired to make a few key mistakes that allowed the Yoddha back into the game. With just a one-point lead, it was imperative they didn't concede cheap points, but that is exactly what they did when Nitin Tomar came into raid, giving away two points and the lead. That meant they had to rely on Jang Kun Lee to once again draw them level.
The Yoddha decided to make empty raids on their final two attempts and took a tie from this one and they will be the happier of the two sides. It could have been back-to-back home wins for the Bengal side, but instead they had to settle for the tie.
Maninder Singh and captain Surjeet Singh had fine nights, but they failed to apply the finishing touches to their performance that meant they had to surrender two points which could have given them a sizeable lead in the points table.
#4 The Warriors should be raging mad at the officials
Twice in their match, the officials cost the Warriors some crucial points. There has been some noise made by players earlier about the officiating this season. There have been times when it has been rather poor. This was one such match.
In the first half with the Warriors facing a Do or Die raid, Jang Kun Lee looked to have gotten a touch as he began counting down the clock just 10 seconds into the raid. However, he went in for a late flourish, perhaps as a result of not getting any positive sign from the officials. As he returned to his side, the officials ruled that there was no touch.
Lee was confident and the Warriors took the review. The on-court officials weren't at fault here because Lee had gotten a faint brush on the foot of Jeeva Kumar's shoe which would not have been easy to spot in real time. The TV umpire though should have seen that but to everyone's surprise, the TV umpire ruled that there was no touch and the Warriors lost Lee and their review so early in the game through no fault of theirs.
In the second half, Vinod Kumar effected a fantastic frog jump over Jeeva Kumar. Having evaded the defence, he went into the lobby and looked to have scored a point. The umpires originally gave the point to him. For some reason, however, they changed their decision a few seconds later, saying that there had been no touch which meant that Vinod was out having entered the lobby without a touch.
There seemed to have been a clear touch on Jeeva when he leapt and the replays proved it. It was a bad miss from the officials. What made it worse was that the Warriors couldn't review it because of what had happened earlier in the first half.
Two raids, two costly errors from the officials. This game was tight throughout and finally ended in a tie. Those two points could have easily been the difference between a win and a tie.
#5 Take a bow Prashanth Kumar Rai
In a team stronger in the defensive department than the raiding department, Vikas Khandola had been the flag-bearer as far as raiding went for the Steelers. He took a hard knock however in their last match against U Mumba that saw him reeling on the mat in pain. He was forced off during that game and did not feature tonight owing to the aforementioned injury.
Replacing him was Prashanth Kumar Rai and what a night he had.
He was the star man for his side as he picked up 14 points from just 18 total raid attempts. He got his points in different ways too - he was good against the full quota of seven men and equally good when faced with just two or three as well. He had quick under-10 second successful raids as well as ones where he wound down the clock and invited mistakes from the Gujarat defence.
He outshone the Fortunegiants' Sachin and displayed a great combination of skill and composure to lead the way for his side. He was unstoppable on the night.
Wazir Singh was also instrumental, effecting both All Outs on the Fortunegiants in the game, each with two men on the court. He had 7 raid points and 2 tackle points on the night.
