Pro Kabaddi League 2019 | Match 41: Gujarat Fortune Giants vs Bengal Warriors Review | 14th August
After losing four matches consecutively, Gujarat Fortune Giants were incredibly desperate to win the battle in their home leg at the Pro Kabaddi League Season 7. They needed to emerge victorious after losing twice in Ahmedabad itself. On the other hand, the Warriors have been having an impressive campaign in the seventh season and tied with the Titans in their prior battle.
Read to find out how the anticipated encounter between Gujarat Fortune Giants and Bengal Warriors proceeded at the Eka Arena by TranStadia in Ahmedabad.
Starting 7s
Gujarat Fortune Giants: Sunil Kumar, Sachin Tanwar, Sonu, Ankit, Parvesh Bhainswal, Sumit, Rohit Gulia
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh, K. Prapanjan, Vijin Thangadurai, Baldev Singh, Viraj Vishnu Landge, Rinku Narwal, Esmaeil Nabibakhsh
Toss
Bengal Warriors won the toss and chose the court.
Sachin started for the Giants and finally managed a touch point after an empty raid. Opening the account for his team, K. Prapanjan brought in a raid point for the Warriors. A tiger-like ankle hold by Baldev sent Rohit Gulia off the mat.
It was a neck-to-neck battle in which both teams pitched in points without any break. A top-class dubki by Prapanjan sent the Sunil-Parvesh chain to the bench. A brilliant two-pointer by Sachin made the crowd go berserk. The crowd chanting Sachin's name was giving out some nostalgic Sachin Tendulkar vibes.
With a calm and collected attitude, the Giants kept performing much better than their previous matches. After 14 minutes into the face-off, the score was tied at eight each, giving an impression of both Gujarat's and Bengal's attitude towards the battle. A mind-blowing super-tackle gifted two points to the home team.
The two fierce teams were in no mood to let each other score. An almost super-tackle backfired on the Giants and they ended up suffering their first all-out of the night. The first-half ended in Bengal's favour with them leading 17-12.
As the second half kick-started, Sonu picked up a swift point for his squad. A review claimed by the Warriors was deemed unsuccessful upon inspection. Sonu, in a quick raid, tumbled into the lobby, literally gifting a point to the rivals.
To add to Gujarat's woes further, they lost their only review of the night in the 27th minute of the encounter. As the Warriors kept on adding points to their kitty, Gujarat slipped into deeper trouble as the crowd sat quietly with frowned faces.
Providing some hope, siblings Sunil and Sumit inflicted a super-tackle on Nabibakhsh. However, another possible all-out hovered over the Giants. Towards the end of the other half, they started losing their confidence big time, henceforth committing many rookie errors.
An out-of-the-world super tackle by Sunil brought down the score difference to just two points. The match, which initially looked one-sided, still had that competitive factor left. After bringing the score to a tie at 26 each with a super tackle, the stadium once again abruptly woke up and kept egging on their squad.
With just a single minute left, the match could have tilted in any direction. In the buzzer raid, Prapanjan stepped in the opponent's court and brought the winning point of the night. The Bengal Warriors snatched the match from the home team with the score 28-26.
A depressed Manpreet once again saw the match slip from his team's grip like sand. However, he ended the night with a heart-warming message to his team, telling them to keep their heads high and give a better performance in the next match.