Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 61 of PKL 5

The first day of the Jaipur leg of season five of the Pro Kabaddi League saw two extremely entertaining matches. Home side Pink Panthers ran Zone A leaders Gujarat Fortunegiants close before eventually succumbing to a 29-23 loss.

The second match of the day was the Inter-Zone wildcard match between heavyweights Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan, which was a nail-biting clash that was eventually decided by two big plays, with the Warriors winning 25-18.

#1 Jaipur slowed the pace down but Gujarat adapted well

The Pink Panthers opened proceedings at home with a good display of defensive kabaddi, slowing the pace of the game down. They forced the visiting Fortunegiants to move away from their naturally attacking style and made it into a defensive slugfest.

Both teams put up solid defensive performances, falling deep into their zone to draw the raiders in, before attacking them from the other side to gain points.

Jasvir Singh had a bad day as a raider but put in a lot of effort on the defensive end, earning four tackle points to keep Jaipur in the match. Sidharth also stepped in with a couple of crucial ankle holds to score two tackle points.

Gujarat's defenders had a great day, with Parvesh Bhainswal scoring four points while Abozar Mighani stepped up at crucial junctures with powerful ankle holds.

Fazel Atrachali did a great job of cleaning up raids, putting in solid dashes from left corner, scoring three points in the process.

The Fortunegiants' raiders made all the difference, with Sachin scoring six points, getting crucial bonus points and touches while Chandran Ranjit got the only all out of the match to put the result beyond doubt, ending with seven points.

#2 Manjeet Chhillar showcases his importance to Jaipur again

Manjeet Chhillar proved that he is Jaipur's most important player against the Fortunegiants

Despite scoring only two points, Manjeet Chhillar had a role in almost every point scored by the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the match.

Chhillar was the team's on-mat coach, manoeuvring his teammates strategically, changing the position of the defensive line, deciding who would go to raid and funnily enough, playing pacifier to calm Jasvir down when his teammate lost his temper.

Watching him in action on the mat was akin to watching Jose Mourinho pull off his defensive masterclass for Inter Milan against Barcelona in the Champions League, that is how impressive a performance it was!

The Pink Panthers were in the contest right until the moment Manjeet failed to get a touch on his do or die raid and had to go out.

Gujarat pounced on his absence and took a decisive step to win the match, taking the score from 21-18 to 29-23.

#3 Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan put on a defensive masterclass

Puneri Paltan's defence impressed against Bengal but faded away towards the end

The second encounter of the night saw a defensive exhibition on display from both Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan, with the first half of the match ending 9-9. The raiders eventually got in on the action as the match ended 25-19 in the Warriors' favour.

If the first match was all about holding position and forcing the raiders to take risks, the second one was about the defenders playing out of their skin to give no chances to the raiders.

Pune's tackling experts, Sandeep Narwal and Girish Maruti Ernak both put in incredible performances to keep Maninder Singh under check, scoring four and three points respectively.

Bengal got tremendous contributions from captain Surjeet Singh and all-rounder Shrikant Tewthia as they scored five and six points respectively to put their team in the driving seat.

Despite Pune captain Deepak Niwas Hooda scoring seven points, and crossing the 100 point total for the season, the match was totally dominated by defence, which showed in the statistics, with a total of only 17 raid points, compared to 23 tackle points.

#4 Surjeet's leadership and big all out helped Bengal overcome absence of key players

Surjeet and Shrikant Tewthia's partnership worked wonders for Bengal

The Warriors took to the mat without all-rounder Ran Singh, a crucial player in defence, and raiders Jang Kun Lee and Deepak Narwal.

With only Maninder Singh to raid for points principally, they relied on their defence and captain Surjeet's ability to organise his troops effectively to throttle the most-balanced team in the league, Pune.

Surjeet's partnership with Shrikant Tewthia did not allow Puneri Paltan to run away with the match after the team from Pune had taken an early lead in the second half.

Bengal produced two important moments on raids during the match that changed the complexion of the encounter. First, Vinod Kumar scored two touch points on a do or die raid, pushing their lead to three points.

Their next raid saw Maninder make his biggest contribution of the match, getting an all out and scoring four points, increasing the lead to seven points at 23-16, putting the result beyond doubt.

#5 Contrasting fortunes for Jaipur and Bengal with crucial players out of the game

Maninder Singh effecting the game's only all out to give Bengal the advantage

The two matches today saw important players from both teams having to spend time outside the mat, with the opposition taking advantage of their absence.

Manjeet Chhillar was crucially dismissed on a do or die raid, forcing him to miss the extremely important last five minutes against Gujarat.

The Fortunegiants capitalised on his absence and took the match away from the home side in that time, effecting a couple of important raids to eventually win by six points.

In the second match, despite spending about 25 minutes off the mat, Bengal Warriors' Maninder Singh stepped up when it mattered, getting two crucial touches and enforcing an all out, helping his team score four points.

That increased their lead to seven points, with just over three minutes left in the match, giving them a huge advantage that they used to win the match.