Ajinkya Pawar's 6-point Super Raid: Explaining why & how the Tamil Thalaivas raider made a mockery of the Telugu Titans defenders in Pro Kabaddi 2022 Match 60
39 minutes into Match 60 of the Pro Kabaddi 2022 season, fans waited with bated breath to see if the unthinkable was to happen. Having lost 9 out of their 10 matches so far in the ongoing PKL 9 season, the Telugu Titans were only trailing by one point against the Tamil Thalaivas, and it seemed as if they would finally conjure up a win after ages.
Yes, the unthinkable happened. However, as is the storyline this Pro Kabaddi season, the Titans were dealt an irreversible blow - this time, a 6-point Super Raid from Ajinkya Pawar.
The Thalaivas had just two men left on the mat with a 30-29 score advantage, and the Titans were in with an excellent chance to inflict an All-Out that would bring them the lead. With just 1 minute and 44 seconds to go in the mat, the Titans' faithful had all the right to believe they were in the drivers' seat.
In came Thalaivas raider Pawar to try and sniff out at least one bonus point and, if possible, a couple of touch points to help his team retain their lead.
From the first second he came in to raid, Pawar's eyes were fixated on the Titans' right side, mainly on right corner Vijay Kumar and right in Mohsen Maghsoudlou.
Expectedly, it took barely a few seconds for Mohsen to dive on Pawar's ankles, and for the rest of the Titans' defensive unit comprising of stalwarts such as skipper Surjeet Singh and left corner Vishal Bhardwaj to run in for support.
Expected only because that's how the Titans have operated all season - advanced tackles which have more often than not resulted in gifting away points to opposition raiders.
On this occasion, though, the Titans' defensive unit did well enough to envelope Pawar entirely - or so we thought.
The Thalaivas raiding star found the smallest of gaps to snuggle out and get his hand across the touchline, triggering wild celebrations in his camp. As for the Titans side of things, the look of bewilderment was writ large on their faces.
Within the space of 20-25 seconds, the Titans had not just conceded a golden opportunity to arrest a rather embarrassing losing streak, but they were now at the risk of not even picking up one point from the match.
Simply put, the Titans were suddenly the real-life embodiment of the phrase 'from bad to worse'.
Wait, but wasn't Ajinkya Pawar tackled by the Telugu Titans?
Yes, he was. Quite visibly so as well, with the whole team barring Siddharth Desai associating some part of their bodies to the Thalaivas raider.
So why wasn't he sent out by the referees?
This is where it all begins to make sense.
Referees are a massive part of any sport, and more so in Pro Kabaddi, where you have 15 of them working on a single Pro Kabaddi match.
Also read: Why are 15 officials involved in a single Pro Kabaddi match? Here are the details of the umpires' roles in PKL
There's a specific case in a Pro Kabaddi match where the match referees have their whistles ready to be blown, with the arms extended to stop a tackle, only to ensure the raiders/defenders aren't inflicted with any sort of injury.
For reference, the umpire in the above picture had his arms extended, but the whistle was not blown yet.
In this case, the umpires were waiting to give Pawar a chance to get across the midline since he was so close to it anyway, with no visible signs of any defender potentially causing the Thalaivas raider any harm.
This is where all hell broke loose for the Titans.
Call it heat of the moment or whatever it is, the Titans decided that they had enough with the tackle, and with close to 5-6 seconds left on the raid, slowly worked their way out.
Pawar took his chance, struggled through the ankle hold from a smiling Maghsoudlou (the Iranian had probably assumed that was the match) and propelled himself with a push off Vinay to get across the midline, celebrating with a couple of claps and high fives with his teammates.
The Titans unit, including head coach Venkatesh Goud, threw their arms up in the air, protesting against what had just happened, but it was all in vain.
It was clear as a bright, sunny day.
The referees did not blow the whistle, they were only in their regular stance when a tackle happens, all while giving the raider a chance to escape and make merry - exactly what eventually happened.
As for the Titans, this strange situation went perfectly in parallel to the shocking Pro Kabaddi 2022 season they are having, and that 6-point raid quelled any hopes they had of picking up a win.
Massive props to Ajinkya Pawar, though, who had the frame of mind to make the most of the opportunity handed to him and join PKL legend Pardeep Narwal in an exclusive club - the only two raiders to pick up 6 raid points in a single raid.
Chala bagundi 😅
#CHEvTT | #IdhuNammaTeam | #GiveItAllMachi | #TamilThalaivas | #VivoProKabaddi https://t.co/gGkLntKPpy
Speaking to the media post their win, Tamil Thalaivas coach Ashan Kumar said -
"It was important to win, the situation was such that we could have lost. But our raider did extremely well to get across the line and get us those important points."
Courtesy of the win, the Thalaivas jumped out of second-last position to 8th, while the Titans remained last on the Pro Kabaddi 2022 points table with just 8 points from 11 matches.