In a match where the defence of the defending champions came to the party, defending champions Bengaluru Bulls recorded an impressive 34-32 win over 2017 champions Patna Pirates. What made the match special was the great performance by the defenders of the Bengaluru side who inflicted as many as four Super Tackles in the match on the raiders of Patna despite the presence of superstar Pardeep Narwal in the team.
This match was regarded as a battle between the two star raiders in each side - Pardeep for Pirates and Pawan Sehrawat, the star of last year's season, for the Bulls. While both did play their part and Pardeep scored 10 points while Pawan 9, in the end it was the solid defending team of Amit Sheoran, Ashish Sangwan and Mahender Singh which produced the main ingredient of the win.
It was in the second half that these players showed their mettle as they kept foiling Patna's attempts to increase their lead through Super Tackles after Super Tackles. Even the might Pardeep, otherwise an unstobbale force had a lean time for most part of the second half.
Sehrawat, expected to deliver a big performance struggled in the first half and first part of the second half but then came into form and started to score important points. This sealed Bulls' victory.
