Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 22 of PKL 5
Gujarat Fortunegiants played their first game after a successful home leg in Ahmedabad when they locked horns with Puneri Paltan in Lucknow on Tuesday. They triumphed over Puneri Paltan with much ease riding on the back of another stupendous defensive performance which saw Fazel Atrachali score the highest tackle points in a match by a defender.
In the other match on the night, UP Yoddha met Bengal Warriors and put up an entertaining display of Kabaddi that swung to and fro before the Warriors picked up their second win over the UP Yoddha. As for the Yoddha, the team has a lot of rethinking to do as they head back to the drawing board before the last few games of a home leg where they are yet to taste victory.
Here are the five talking points from the day.
#1 Same old, same old
The performances of Gujarat Fortunegiants have begun to remind of a team whose jersey's colour they matched on Tuesday. In the last couple of weeks, the men in yellow have played like the mighty Australian cricket team did in the 2000s.
Against Puneri Paltan, one of the better units in the league, Fortunegiants produced a performance that had deja vu written all over it. They started slowly as the raids didn't produce a lot of points and seemed to be falling behind when the defence came to their rescue.
And then things started turning Gujarat's way as Atrachali, this time in a leading role instead of being a supporting cast, started pinning down one Paltan defender after the other. Abozar Mighani, slower off the blocks on Tuesday than other days, came into his own in the second half and brought up four points of his own to pile on the misery on the opposition. In all, the two brought the team 13 defence points and won them another match in the competition.