Welcome to Sportstar's coverage of the Pro Kabaddi League. This is Shyam Vasudevan and I will be taking you through today's PKL 8 match between Bengal Warriors and Dabang Delhi.
That brings us to the end of our Pro Kabaddi League coverage for the day. We will be back tomorrow. See you then!
Meanwhile, you can also check out our Kings of Kabaddi series from PKL 7 - a happier time pre-COVID when we got to physically sit down with some of the biggest names in the league and hear their stories. You can check out all episodes here:
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Dabang Delhi will be unhappy with the result as Bengal Warriors made a superb comeback at the death to earn a tie. Maninder Singh and Naveen Kumar were brilliant as the two raiders bagged 16 points each. We now head to the second game where Puneri Paltan takes on Patna Pirates. Join me on the blog here -
FULL-TIME! Bengal Warriors makes a superb recovery to tie the game at 39-39.
39-38 Rohit grabs two points when it matters the most! He bags a bonus and escapes Manjeet's tackle.
37-38 SUPER RAID! Naveen pulls off a stunner as he gets rid of THREE defenders and Bengal Warriors is down to one last man! Under 50 seconds to go.
37-35 Maninder shows no signs of slowing down as he brings up his 16th point of the game.
36-35 Naveen makes it a one-point game as he goes after the left cover.
36-34 That's simply silly from Amit as he makes a tackle on Naveen within 10 seconds of the latter's raid! There was no need for that tackle.
35-33 SUPER 10 FOR NAVEEN! He scores a point after quite some time as he catches Abozar on the toe.
Two and a half minutes to go and we have a Time Out. Bengal Warriors coach BC Ramesh wants his side to kill the clock and not rush the raids, while Dabang Delhi coach wants Vijay to step up.
35-32 Maninder extends his side's lead to three points as he sends Manjeet tumbling off the court.
34-32 Easy point for Maninder as he gets rid of Sandeep, the right corner. Sandeep has had a rather poor outing - he's scored just the one tackle point in 35 minutes.
33-32 Ran Singh has made a few really good tackles this season, but this is not one of them. He attempts a back hold on Naveen, but the latter is too quick for him.
33-30 Maninder continues his onslaught as he picks up a bonus point and a touch point.
31-30 SUPER TACKLE! Amit comes good when it matters the most as he traps Naveen with an ankle hold and Ran Singh comes in with the assist. Ran Singh has been shown a yellow card for holding Naveen's neck and will miss the next two minutes.
29-30 Why Rohit, just why? He has not contributed in attack and neither does he in defence as he makes a shabby tackle on Naveen.
Bengal Warriors has sorely missed a secondary raider this season. Maninder has more often than not been tasked with scoring the raid points but he has had little to no support. Manoj and Rohit, the two other raiders playing for the side today, have managed a meager two points each.
29-29 We're back on level terms as Manjeet takes care of Manoj.
29-28 Abozar errs this time around as he makes an advanced and rather late tackle on Vijay.
29-26 ALL OUT! Ran Singh pounces on Neeraj Narwal and that's that! Bengal Warriors has a decent lead with 12 minutes to go.
26-25 SUPER 10 FOR MANINDER! He gets the better of Joginder this time around and Dabang Delhi is staring at another All Out!
25-25 Abozar strikes with a well-timed knee hold on Vijay. That will revive Maninder.
24-25 SUPER TACKLE! Joginder does extremely well to trap Maninder with a wrist hold and Dabang Delhi is in the lead again.
24-22 HUGE FROM MANINDER! Manjeet succumbs to Maninder's pace and steps off the mat, while Sandeep makes one of his many rash dashes and has no success.
22-22 Wow, that is some tackle on Naveen! Vishal shows phenomenal strength to single-handedly pull Naveen away from the mid-line.
21-22 Fortunate points for Bengal Warriors as Jeeva and Ashu enter the lobbies whilst chasing Maninder.
19-21 Naveen grabs another bonus, but this is really poor work from Bengal Warriors. Ran Singh, the left corner, has done little to nothing to stop Naveen, who has been picking up bonus points for fun!
18-20 Naveen picks up his sixth point of the evening with a running hand touch on Vishal.
HALF-TIME! Dabang Delhi has a slender one-point lead at the interval.
18-19 Abozar joins the party as he makes a diving ankle hold on Vijay.
17-19 ALL OUT! Dabang Delhi has taken the lead as Joginder executes a superb ankle hold on Ran Sngh.
16-16 That's just too easy for Naveen. He tags the defender and cruises away to safety. The Warriors are down to one man!
15-15 Amit succumbs to pressure from Naveen and steps out of bounds. A freebie for Dabang Delhi.
15-14 Good work from Naveen as he gets a running hand touch Rohit. It's a one-point game now!
15-13 Bengal Warriors loses its review as Ashu about gets the faintest of touches on Abozar's back.
Ashu is certain that he's tagged Abozar, but the Iranian is adamant that there was no touch! Bengal Warriors has reviewed the decision.
15-12 Bengal Warriors has its first bonus point after 15 minutes of play, courtesy of Manoj Gowda.
Dabang Delhi has scored seven bonus points while Bengal Warriors has managed NONE! That doesn't bode well for the Warriors...
14-12 Maninder is taken out in the do-or-die raid and guess who makes the tackle? Manjeet Chillar! Finally something to cheer about for the Dabang Delhi defence.
14-10 Naveen gets the better of Vishal to score his first raid point of the evening. Quite a slow start for the Naveen Express .
Dabang Delhi has managed just one tackle point so far, while Bengal Warriors has four.
14-9 Five-point leas for Bengal Warriors! Amit Nirwal and Vishal combine well to pin Vijay on the mat.
13-9 Maninder bags another easy point as he lands a toe touch on Jeeva. Jeeva has well and truly struggled this season.
12-9 Naveen plays it safe and picks up a bonus point - that's his first point of the game.
12-7 That's just too easy for Maninder. Manjeet shows little to no movement and Maninder coolly tags him.
11-7 Naveen is off the mat yet again as he falls prey to a fantastic ankle hold from Ran Singh.
10-6 ALL OUT! Vijay cannot get past the Bengal Warriors defence and the reigning champion has inflicted the first All Out.
7-5 Vijay got the better of Rohit and bagged a bonus, but Maninder comes on the next raid to send Jeeva back to the bench. Dabang Delhi down to one last man - Vijay.
6-3 Maninder makes that look so easy! He gets a running hand touch and eliminates Krishnan.
5-2 Rohit gets the better of Manjeet on the left corner and Dabang Delhi is in all sorts of trouble!
4-2 Vijay bags another bonus point but that won't revive a player. Dabang Delhi is down to three men inside of four minutes!
4-1 Maninder strikes big and he gets rid of both the Narwals - Joginder and Sandeep! Exceptional work from the Bengal Warriors skipper.
2-1 First point on the board for Dabang Delhi as Vijay picks up a bonus point.
2-0 Naveen Kumar is taken out! Vishal Mane pounces on him with a fine double thigh hold.
1-0 Maninder Singh scores off the first raid of the game as he tags Jeeva Kumar, who has just come back to the starting seven.
Dabang Delhi won the toss and chose the left side of the court, Bengal Warriors will raid first.
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7:30pm: TEAM NEWS!
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh, Vishal Mane, Amit Nirwal, Manoj Gowda, Rohit, Abozar Mighani, Ran Singh
Dabang Delhi: Naveen Kumar, Ashu Malik, Manjeet Chillar, Sandeep Narwal, Vijay Malik, Joginder Narwal, Jeeva Kumar
7:20pm: Did you know that Naveen Kumar was once tricked into eating bitter methi (fenugreek) laddoos? Here's him describing it in his own words -
7:10pm: Dabang Delhi has slipped to the third spot after failing to win its last two games. In its previous outing, the side rallied late in the game to earn a tie against the Bengaluru Bulls. Naveen Kumar had a good outing and finished the game with 13 raid points. A tie or a loss by seven or under will see Dabang Delhi go level on points with second-placed Haryana Steelers.
7pm: Bengal Warriors comes into the game on the back of a disappointing tie against the Telugu Titans. Maninder Singh, once again, led by example with a Super 10 but the rest of the team was not able to support him. The defence had another weak outing as it managed only eight tackle points and conceded 18 raid points. Bengal Warriors is winless in its last four matches and with four games left, the team will need to win all its remaining matches to stand a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.
6:50pm: The 2022 edition of the Sportstar Aces Awards is back and we are celebrating the marvellous year for Indian Sports that 2021 was. From Neeraj Chopra and the other Olympic and Paralympic medallists to the Indian cricket team, we have a bunch of nominees who need your vote to win! Support your favourite athlete/team here .
6:40pm: If you've just hopped on the PKL train, fret not, we have you covered. Here's a simple explainer that covers all the rules of the game and the various terms such as 'All Out', 'Do-or-die' and 'Super Tackle' -
6:30pm: Hello folks and welcome to our PKL coverage for the day! We have a replay of last season's final as defending champion Bengal Warriors takes on runner-up Dabang Delhi. Before we get to that, here's a recap of what went down in the PKL over the last fortnight -
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