Pro Kabaddi League: Bengaluru Bulls beat the Bengal Warriors 30-46 in opening game at Kolkata
Kolkata, 30 July 2014: It was indeed a warm welcome for the Bengal Warriors, as Kolkata came out in full support of their team's arrival home. With Usha Uthup sending the crowd into a tizzy with her own personal dedication to edge the warriors on; one would have expected them to have had a less nervy start.
With the Warriors and the Bulls both starting their campaign with empty raids, Bengaluru did emerge as the stronger team at the start of the first half scoring 4 LONA points at the end of Two and Six minutes. Bengal Warrior's South Korean Jang Kun Lee emerged as the star player for Kolkata being the sole defender remaining twice during the first half, protecting the Warriors territory gallantly and being their strongest raider, tied at two points with his teammate Nitin Madane at the end of the first twenty minutes.
For the Bengaluru Bulls, Ajay Thakur emerged as their most successful raider at the end of first-half with 6 Raid Points, followed by Rajesh Mandal at 4 Raid Points. The first half ended with the Bengaluru Bulls in a twelve-point lead against the Bengal Warriors, with scores at 13-25.
The Bengaluru Bulls maintained their 12-point lead through the second half, scoring another 2 LONA points at the end of 34 minutes dampening Kolkata's homecoming who were unable to score any LONA points through the game. With Bengaluru, increasing their lead to a 16-point difference, the fans started stepping away from their seats and the Bengaluru Bulls ended their only match in Kolkata on a high with scores at the end of the games poised at 30-46.
Ajay Thakur remained the top raider for the evening with 10 points, winning the Star Sports Best Raider award followed by the Bull's Rajesh Mundal at 5 points. Bengaluru continued to add individual medals to the victory with the Bull's Dharmaraj Cherlathan winning the Best Defender award and captain Manjit Chillar winning the Moment of Day award.
With this victory, Bengaluru have 5 league points keeping them in close contention for the top spot, while Kolkata would have to hope that redemption comes over the next few days,while they continue their home leg.