Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 50 of PKL 5

Akshay Kumar's Bengal Warriors met Rohit 'Akki' Kumar's Bengaluru Bulls in the first of the two games at the Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. Game number 90th didn't, however, see the Akshay Kumar fan doing much to impress his idol as the Bengal Warriors earned another impressive win to strengthen their case as PKL 5 contenders while the Bulls made their journey ahead even tougher with another narrow loss.

The second game saw the home team Delhi suffering another morale-deflating loss to the Puneri Paltan, bringing their fans more agony. Delhi had their nose ahead when the half-time whistle rang but they terribly lost control of the proceedings once the second half began, getting All Out twice within 10 minutes to allow Puneri Paltan shoo them out of contest.

Here are the five talking points from the day.

#1 The game of fine margins

In a single match, we saw two instances of fine margins coming into play

The pundits keep on repeating that the margins are extremely fine in this game and it got proved once again in the encounter between the Bengal Warriors and the Bengaluru Bulls on Saturday. The first half saw Deepak Narwal making a tremendous raid attempt against a full fledged Bulls defence only to get swallowed by it after Ravinder Pahal brought him down. But, for a moment, it seemed that Narwal had got his hand across the line. The replays, however, showed that he missed touching the mid-line by millimeters. What could have been a 4-point super raid ended up as a point for the opposition.

In the second half, the shoe was on the other foot as Rohit Kumar was denied what could have been a game-changing super raid. Kumar had managed to get his hand across the mid-line but only milliseconds after the whistle was blown that proved all his struggle meaningless. Not surprisingly, the Bengaluru camp was left fuming.

#2 Captain Rohit Kumar and Surjeet Singh have contrasting nights

Rohit Kumar had no answers to the dashes and blocks from Surjeet Singh

Much of the change in fortunes for Bengal this season has got to do with Surjeet Singh’s superlative show in the defence. At the same time, much of the poor form of Rohit Kumar has got to do with Bengaluru Bulls' poor show as a team. As perplexing as it might sound, the evidence of it was right there in Bengal’s match against Bengaluru Bulls.

Despite being a proven champion, Rohit Kumar struggled throughout the game and particularly against Surjeet Singh. But Rohit Kumar’s struggles could be attributed to the lack of support he received from fellow raider Ajay Kumar and, at times, even from his own defence. This has been the case throughout Season 5 for him. On the other hand, a confident Surjeet Singh was instrumental once again in his team’s win over the Bulls with a High 5. Surjeet’s form has been helped by both his fellow defenders and raiders performing around him which often takes the pressure off him, allowing him to play his natural game. This was the case on Saturday night too and not only did the Warriors score a win over the Bulls, even Surjeet Singh made light work of Rohit Kumar.

#3 Bulls spurred to action by coach’s words

Despite finishing on the losing side, Harish Naik had a terrific night individually as he picked a Super 10

With just 6 minutes left in the game, Bengal had the upper hand with a lead of 8 points. That’s when Bengaluru Bulls took a timeout and the Bulls coach decided to have a word with his pupils. Coach Randhir Singh was as clear in his instructions as any coach has ever been. With nothing to lose in the game, he told his troops to try to make every raid count. That made every Bulls raid from there on a Do-or-Die raid for them.

Young Harish Naik, who had a fantastic night individually, went in for the first raid after the break and started a sequence for the Bulls where they turned the match on its head by scoring 9 points in 3 minutes that made Bengal fans and their owner Khiladi Kumar nervous in the stands. Maninder Singh, though, collected a four-point raid with a calm head to end any hopes of a win for the Bulls. However, the fight put in by the Bulls would make the fans wonder what could have happened had coach Randhir Singh decided to share his words of wisdom a few minutes earlier with his troops.

#4 Magical Meraj provides the moment of the day

Sheykh couldn't do a similar job in the second half for his team

There’s something about Meraj. He might not feature in the top 10 on the list of raiders with most raids this season but if one sits down to make a compilation of the best raids in a season, it is sure to feature Meraj Sheykh and not just once, for he keeps conjuring magic on a regular basis.

And magic it was, once again, on show when in the 16th minute he went in to raid. He attacked the left corner and when he was on his way back, he seemed trapped. But what Meraj does brilliantly is that he doesn’t commit to the sprint and that’s how he can change direction at any point of his run. And that’s exactly how he managed to slip past two Puneri Paltan defenders. After making his way in from the left, his mastery saw him making his escape from the right.

That’s how one of the most wonderful raids of Season 5 was completed.

#5 Delhi Belly, once again

Raider Rohit Baliyan was good on the night but not good enough as Delhi lost another game

When it comes to disappointing their fans, Delhi can do the seemingly impossible. Since going down to U Mumba after leading throughout the match, they conspired to lose the game against another Maharashtrian side following a meltdown in the second half. The team looked in complete control of the proceedings in the first half and went to the second half with a 6-point lead. Post half-time script, however, wasn’t written by an ink favourable to Dabangs from Delhi.

First up, Puneri Paltan succeeded in pulling off two spectacular Super Tackles to come close to Delhi’s total. Next, Rajesh Mondal, who had a quiet night till then, jumped into the act and picked two double-point raids. What followed was a familiar meltdown from the Delhi side where they simply opened the floodgates and allowed Pune to drown them. Although, they managed to pull things back in the dying moments of the game, it was never going to be enough to compensate for the horror show that panned out in the first 10 minutes of the second half and they bowed out with another defeat in front of their home crowd.