After many seasons of struggle, Dabang Delhi finally made the finals of Pro Kabaddi League for the first time after defeating Bengaluru Bulls in the first semi-final of season 7. What shaped Delhi's victory was their watertight defence and the efficacious raiding by Navin Kumar.
For the Bulls, it was entirely a one-man show as their star-raider Pawan Sehrawat kept fighting till the end to create the sort of comebacks that he has orchestrated in this season before. However, he had no support from his team's defence that not only failed to register enough good tackles but also proved incapable of reviving him when he was on the bench.
Sehrawat ended up as the top scorer in the match with 18 points, three ahead of his counterpart in Delhi Navin. But what made the difference was the lack of composure by Bengaluru in the last quarter of the match and the solid defence of the Dabang team.
Rohit Kumar, who wasn't captaining today, actually proved effective in his raiding by scoring 5 points but Sumit, who had played a key role in his team's victory in the eliminator, failed to get the necessary raiding points when required to revive Pawan.
Apart from Navin's 15 points, Delhi benefitted enormously by 9 points from Chandran Ranjit and three crucial tackle points each from Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal.
The Bengaluru defence crumbled under pressure. Both Mahender Singh and Saurabh Nandal got only two tackle points. As a result, Pawan spent around half the match on the bench. With Sumit unable to produce the goods and Rohit also not in the best of form or health, there was no chance for Bengaluru to come back.
