Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 18 of PKL 5

#5 Thalaivas keep gifting matches away with mistakes yet again

The Thalaivas once again gave up a lead towards the end as their mistakes proved costly

The Thalaivas are a team filled with a lot of young players and coach Baskaran has said that he believes the team will get better over the season. However, they can't keep shooting themselves in the foot by giving away leads with silly errors.

Yesterday, they led going into the last five minutes against the Haryana Steelers, but made a key error on a raid late in the game that swung the game around and today they did it again. With Ajay Thakur firing, the Thalaivas had managed to overturn and early deficit and lead once again going into the final stretch of the game. And somehow, they conspired to lose the game from there with the Dabangs not really looking like they had a comeback in them. But come back they did, thanks to a litany of mistakes from the Thalaivas.

The signs were there early too. Early in the second leading 19-16, after they had reduced the Dabangs down to one man, they failed to effect an All Out twice. On both occasions, Iran's Abolfazl Maghsodlou came into raid and instead of just giving him a bonus and forcing a surrender raid on their own raid on the next turn, the Thalaivas defenders went in for unnecessary tackles allowing Abolfazl to escape twice. Not just that, they gifted him two points on each occasion, as he got the Bonus plus the touch point. They eventually did get him on their third attempt, but those points were crucial in the final outcome as it allowed Delhi to chip away and get close as they managed to tie at 21-21 before giving the All Out to the Thalaivas.

Despite those errors, the Thalaivas still led 27-23 with just five minutes left in the contest. With some smart game management, the Thalaivas would have ensured victory. It was not to be though as they imploded in spectacular fashion in the final three minutes. Prapanjan, having a horrible night, got captured looking for an unnecessary point with a stacked Delhi defence. With another defensive error, they found themselves reduced to four men and with two minutes left, their lead was down to just two.

Coach Baskaran, sensing his team was faltering, took a timeout to pass on some key information. It was to no avail though, as on the next raid Meraj Sheykh affected took a 3-point raid and reduce the Thalaivas to just one man after their defence needlessly tried to bring him down. Had they just conceded the one point, they would have still had the advantage going into the final minute. Instead the Dabangs now had a 2-point lead, up 30-28.

Even Ajay Thakur, who had such a spectacular night, made one key error to round things off. As the last man, Ajay got a touch point, but thinking he had got the bonus, went back past the midline, instead of trying for more points that could have given his team a tie, maybe even a win. Instead, he left time on the clock for Meraj to come in, take an empty raid and ensure a one-point win for the Dabangs. Can you believe that the Thalaivas did not suffer a single All Out and still lost?

The Thalaivas truly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.