PKL 2019: Haryana Steelers slays Puneri Paltan, Telugu Titans edges Tamil Thalaivas

Vikash Kandola and Dharmaraj Cheralathan starred in Haryana Steelers's 41-27 win over Puneri Paltan.

Published : Sep 02, 2019 22:25 IST

Dharmaraj Cheralathan (left) was excellent with his tackling, earning Haryana Steelers five tackle points against Puneri Paltan (File photo)- PTI

Vikash Kandola was once again unstoppable as Haryana Steelers cruised to a 41-27 victory against Puneri Paltan in a ProKabaddi match here on Monday.

The star raider clinched a Super 10 (11 raid points) as his team outperformed the Pune unit in all departments to jump to the second on the points table.

The match had been billed as an encounter between the hard-tackling Pune side and the raid heavy Haryana team.

Nitin Tomar started brightly for Pune as the five-star raider produced a ‘Dubki’ to take out the experienced Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Kandola in the second minute.

LIVE BLOG

Super Tackles, a big source of points in Season 7, kept the scores ticking as the match became a cagey affair towards the end of the first half. But two multi-point raids by in-form Kandola forced an All-Out on Pune and handed over the momentum to Haryana. The half ended with Haryana leading 18-11.

The Steelers came into the game after three wins in as many games and it started the second half with renewed energy. Vikas Kandola was in the thick of things once again but Haryanas raiding duo of Vinay Kumar and Prashanth Kumar Rai were more than an able support crew to Kandola, picking up vital points whenever the star raider went out.

Haryana enforced another All-Out on Pune with less than 9 minutes left in the match to all but seal the game.

-Telugu Titans edges Tamil Thalaivas-

Siddharth Desai and Vishal Bhardwaj led Telugu Titans to a 35-30 win over Tamil Thalaivas with hauls of nine and six points respectively. V. Ajith Kumar led the way for Thalaivas with 14 points, 13 of which were raid points, but Titans's raiding and tackling trumped Thalaivas's game on the night.