Haryana Steelers’s captain Surender Nada is a great crowd-puller, displaying his skillful guard work. He does not give an impression that his brain works overtime, but he's always there in the nick of time to bring his strong hands into play, for an ankle hold tackle or to pounce on the opponent, once his teammates make the first move.
Against Tamil Thalaivas, Nada demonstrated his talent to earn seven points and keep his side ahead at 13-10. But Steelers, a side without a daring and smart raider, conceded a lot to the Thalaivas, which spearheaded by the tall and lithe raider K. Prapanjan, did well to force a 25-all tie (the fourth one of the ongoing league).
It was virtually a one-man show for both teams; Nada putting a big show for the Steelers, and Prapanjan, shrugging off a few setbacks and mounting pressure on the rival defence, especially on the right corner that was manned by Chhillar.
Fortunes swung in a tantalising manner in the last three minutes with Amit Hooda playing the supporting role with six points; he scored a timely super tackle (the Steelers had only three to defend) to put his team ahead 24-23. But with one minute and twenty seconds to go, Ashish Chhokar pushed to raid by Nada, came back with two touch points for his the Steelers to lead by a solitary point at 25-24.
The Thalaivas did not field its captain and out-of-form raider, Ajay Thakur, once he was ejected off the mat in the 12th minute of the first half. It opted for the giant-like South Korean Dong Geon Lee and he scored the last point crossing the bonus point line. Hooda was up against seven Steelers during the buzzer time raid; he waited for time to lapse for his team to share points.
With the match going neck and neck, and with a little over two minutes remaining, the teams called for time outs with the Steelers leading 23-22 before Hooda’s super tackle. It was a well-contested match with Nada showing his class and Prapanjan using his long limbs to good effect.
FORTUNEGIANTS HAS IT EASY AGAINST TITANS
The combined work of raiders — Sukesh Hegde (7 points), Sachin Tawar (11) and defender Abozar Mighani (4) steered Gujarat Fortunegiants (GFG) to a 29-19 win in the inter-zone match against Telugu Titans at the Arena by Transstadia. It was GFG's fifth straight home win and it leads Zone A with 33 points. With the Titans' skipper Rahul Chaudhary just scoring three points, the local team was hardly troubled. Sachin won three awards including the Star Sports player of the match.
Results:-
Tamil Thalaivas
25 drew with
Haryana Steelers 25.
(
Matchcentre )
Gujarat Fortunegiants 29 beat Telugu Titans 19 ( Matchcentre )
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