In the second thrilling contest of the evening, Rohit Kumar-led Bengaluru Bulls pulled off an uplifting come-from-behind win over Patna Pirates in the Bengaluru leg of Pro Kabaddi League 2019.
This match was seen as a fight between some of the best raiders in the league. On the side of Bengaluru, there was the 'Hi-flier' Pawan Sehrawat and their captain Rohit Kumar while Patna had the star of the 2017 season Pardeep Narwal.
The first half saw both the top raiders, Pawan and Pardeep showing their quality. Pardeep pulled off a super raid in the 15th minute where he eliminated four players to take his team to a 17-8 lead.
Pawan then had a good raid of his own where he got two points and reduced Patna to just two men. But these two were good enough to super tackle Sehrawat. In the very next raid by Bulls, their skipper Rohit also got super tackled with less than one-minute remaining. The score at the end of the first half was 22-16. Pawan already had 12 points while Pardeep 9. Rohit was yet to get off the mark.
Sumit Singh of Bulls started off the second half with a wonderful raid where his patience got him one point and reduced Patna to just three players. Pawan went in to finish off the Pirates but got super tackled himself. Patna's lead now swelled to seven points.
Pardeep was being cautious and ended up getting tackled in a nonchalant-looking raid. Rohit's bad run continued as he got super tackled at the end of a long raid. Mohammad Maghsoudlou then succeeded in the do or die raid to take his team's lead to nine points. Soon, it was ten with Sumit getting tackled.
With Bulls down to just three, Monu was sent to reduce their strength further but he failed the test. However, Patna had their own back with Pawan getting tackled in the very next raid. Pardeep almost eliminated all the remaining three players on the mat but was restrained from getting his hand across the line as Bulls got two super tackle points.
Rohit then opened his account when his raid succeeded. Pirates were still leading with less than 10 minutes to go 29-23. In the do or die raid, Maghsoudlou almost got his team more than one point but the Bulls held on to eliminate him.
Danger of all-out hovered above Patna when Rohit went in to raid. He was almost encircled in the same manner as before but this time the other two players didn't come to the aid of the right-defender as Rohit pushed him over the line to get his second point.
Rohit was sent again and once more only one person tackled him but he jumped over that player to score one more point. Pirates now replaced the only remaining player with the substitute Amit. He did his job and got three points with two touch points in a virtual do-or-die raid for his team. Patna were back to three players and once again, Rohit was deep in the left corner and the right defender charged at him for tackle but once again Rohit jumped over him to score one point.
Now the situation was tense as Patna were down to just two players but were leading 32-27. Pardeep was given the responsibility to make a change but the defence of the Bulls didn't give him an opening. Soon, he was the lone man left and he succeeded in getting one point in his raid and reviving another player.
Rohit was now in full flight and easily eliminated the only defender left on the opposing side alongside Pardeep. Narwal again revived a player but this defender too was eliminated by Pawan in his raid. Pardeep looked for a third successive successful raid as the lone man left but this time the Bengaluru team managed to hold on to him and inflict an all out in the 17th minute and the score read 37-33 in the favour of Patna.
After some time, Rohit reduced the gap to just two points at 37-35 with less than three minutes to go. Pawan went in for an extremely crucial raid and eliminated Maghsoudlou when he grabbed the former's foot. Just one point separated the two teams and Pawan went in for another raid but left empty-handed. On the other hand, Amit once again delivered as a substitute and got a point.
But then Sehrawat scored a brace in the next raid to make the sscores level and a successful tackle of Monu gave them the lead with less than a minute to go. Pawan got one player out in the next raid.
Amit, again brought in as a substitute, amazingly pulled off another successful raid but it was too late. Less than ten seconds were remaining and all that Rohit had to do is run down the clock in the last raid which he dutifully did to secure a one-point victory for his team.
The final score read 40-39 and the star for Bengaluru was Pawan with 17 points. Rohit secured seven points also to help his team come from behind and win in the second half. For Patna, Pardeep ended up with 14 points but that wasn't enough in this Pro Kabaddi League match.
