Pune: The 100th match of PKL 11 epitomised the whole season as the Gujarat Giants narrowly edged the U Mumba 34-33 at the Badminton Hall in Balewadi Stadium on Sunday.
While Guman Singh scored a Super 10 and Rakesh scored an impressive 10 points – including two Tackle Points – it was defender Rohit’s High 5, especially his tackles in the final two minutes, that sealed a remarkable win for the Gujarat Giants. For U Mumba, Ajit Chouhan’s 14 points went in vain.
Both teams were in good form at the start of the first half, exchanging the lead regularly. Guman Singh made an impressive start for the Gujarat Giants, successfully eliminating Rinku and Parvesh Bhainswal in consecutive moves, while Ajit Chouhan secured an early bonus point for U Mumba. Then U Mumba found their feet, as skipper Sunil Kumar pinned down Guman Singh to equalise the score at 3-3.
Manjeet then made his mark, scoring a crucial point in a left corner raid that sent Jitender Yadav out, giving his team a slight edge. As the first half progressed, Ajit Chouhan scored three consecutive points, but it was Amirmohammad Zafardanesh who emerged as a key player for U Mumba.
But this spurred the Gujarat Giants into action as Rakesh capitalised on an error from Sunil Kumar, and then earned a Super Tackle to help his team avoid an All Out situation. This gave the team a narrow lead as the score read 15-16 in favour of the Gujarat Giants at the end of the first half.
The All Out was eventually inflicted on the Gujarat Giants by U Mumba just two minutes into the second half. Three of these points came from Ajit Chouhan, who got Himanshu Jaglan and Himanshu Singh. The young raider from Pune completed his Super 10 with a successful raid on Rohit, as U Mumba began to take a slight lead.
However, once again, the Gujarat Giants came back into the game. Guman Singh led the charge from the front, getting Rinku and Parvesh Bhainswal in a Do-or-Die raid and hurting U Mumba. With an All Out looming on U Mumba, Rohit Raghav delivered with an impressive raid to get Mohit as the score read 24-25 heading into the final quarter of the game.
Rohit Raghav was unable to replicate a similar raid in the final 10 minutes as a second All Out was inflicted on U Mumba. But Ajit Chouhan prevented the Gujarat Giants from running away with the win after a Super Raid got Neeraj Kumar and Mohit off the mat.
With the win at stake, Gujarat Giants’ Rohit pulled off an all-important tackle to get Ajit Chouhan off the mat, ensuring that there was just a point separating the two teams heading into the final 90 seconds of the game. As the score read 33-33, Manjeet was handed the charge for the final raid – a Do-or-Die raid – but the final word was had by the Gujarat Giants as Rohit’s ankle hold gave them a one-point lead, and the win.
(IANS)
