Pro Kabaddi: Maninder Singh leads Bengal Warriors to first win against Haryana Steelers

Catch the live updates, commentary, scores, statistics and more of the Pro Kabaddi League match between Bengal Warriors and Haryana Steelers.

Haryana Steelers has won all three encounters between the teams so far.

KASA KAI, PUNE? Hello and welcome to Sportstar's live blog of Thursday's Pro Kabaddi League action from the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune. We'll be bringing you all the live action, commentary, scores and updates to you as it unfurls on the mat.

 

48-36 Mohammad Nabibakhsh is happy to waste time on his raid and the clock runs out. Haryana Steelers did slightly better in the second half but Bengal, for the most part, was on top throughout. Dharmaraj was a big miss for Haryana. Will it have been the same if he was on the mat? That's something to debate on.

For now though, Bengal Warriors picks up its first win against Haryana Steelers in four attempts and consolidates the second spot on the table.

48-35 A successful do-or-die raid for Maninder Singh. And that takes his raid points to 19 for the night. Leading on and off the mat! And that's his career best PKL performance, by the way.

46-34 Naveen, who has been the rare bright spark for Haryana tonight, gets another successful raid. Baldev Singh walks away slowly but this has been a case of giving away easy points for Haryana, so the odd successful raid will count for nothing in the big picture.

45-33 An unsuccessful review from Haryana and with that its reviews come to an end. Prapanjan gets the points and that could be the final nail in the coffin for Steeleres with less than four minutes remaining.

43-33 Nabibakhsh thought he got Vikas Khandola but the raider jumps the tackle, gets the touch and dances away. That was stylish move, if anything. The gap is now down to ten points but will it be a case of too little too late?

42-30 A team effort from Haryana! It looked like a huge raid for Maninder Singh until he has the entire team on his in a second and pull him back. If only this effort was there from the start...

41-28 Baldev Singh sends Vikas Khandola to the bench again. The clock is ticking down and Haryana will miss him as it looks to complete an unlikely comeback.

40-28 Naveen picks up two important points! The substitute, on his first raid of the night, bulldozes his was past Rinku Narwal and Mayur Shivtarkar!

"Play calm" was all Rakesh Kumar had to say to his players during the break. Easier said than done, but we'll see how much calmer his players will be in the final ten minutes.

38-26 Smart from the Bengal defenders this time. Vikas Khandola gets another point but could have been more if not for the defenders pulling out of the tackle in the final second. A good comeback from Haryana but will it be too little too late? We'll see but for now we head into a time-out.

38-25 Vikas Khandola picks up Jeeva Kumar again! That was a do-or-die raid and the pressure was on Vikas but Jeeva gifts him the point!

37-24 Another straightforward raid point for Maninder and that's 150th overall point this season. He has been vital to Bengal's rise up the table.

36-24 What a move from Vikas Khandola! Makes both Adarsh and Mayur to go for the tackle but he is away before they could gets a grip on him! Deficit now down to 12 points only. Are we going to the unlikeliest of comebacks?

35-20 Vinay gets a Super 10 and the Haryana bench, led by coach Rakesh, is fit-pumping and celebrating.

34-17 Jeeva Kumar fails in his tackle on Vikas Kandola and that sees Bengal sit in comfortable position with twice as many points as Haryana. If Haryana gets anything from this game, it will be an unbelievable comeback as the Warriors have been absolutely sensational tonight.

31-14 It is Maninder's night and he begins this half also with a successful raid. The player going out? Vikas Kale. Just the way the first half started!

30-14 The Haryana defenders are not on the same wavelength tonight! Mohammad Nabibakhsh, in for a raid, gets tackled by Ravi Kumar but he gets no help from his teammates. And by the time they react and go for the tackle, it is too late. This is in stark contrast to how Bengal defenders have functioned tonight.

At the break, Bengal is comfortably ahead and on course to its first win against Haryana Steelers in PKL.

28-12 Vikas Khandola gets tackled for the fifth time on the night and that's an unsuccessful do-or-die raid.

27-11 Prashanth Kumar Rai and Sunil were caught napping! Mohammad Nabibakhsh just ran through the heart of the defence and went back with zero pressure. Haryana coach Rakesh Kumar has his head in his palms as he can't believe the free ride the Iranian got.

25-9 Almost a super raid! Prapanjan was centimeters away from inflicting more damage on Haryana but the defence, for the first time, comes together and pull his back.

22-7 ANOTHER ALL OUT! Bengal Warriors are taking full advantage of Dharmaraj's absence. Haryana's defence seems to be in two minds throughout this half. They need a time out and for the captain to come in and speak to them.

16-6 Three points to Bengal. Two for the raid and one for the error. And who is at the thick of things again? It's Maninder!

13-5 Vikas Khandola picks up his 350th PKL raid point!

13-4 Beautiful footwork from Vinay, probably Haryana's best move so far tonight. Vinay dances his way till the bonus line and then uses his foot to catch Rinku Narwal. He looked like he was going for the bonus point and it looks like the Warriors also were expecting that. Good move that.

11-3 ALL OUT! We have the first all out and as expected, Bengal Warriors in full control.

6-2 Iranian Nabibakh gets his first points of the game. Ravi Kumar looked in two minds there and was caught before he could make his mind. Very strong start for Bengal this!

4-2 Dharmaraj's absence is showing! Maninder Singh picks up another point and out goes Jeeva Kumar, who was the position that the missing veteran usually operates in.

3-2 Maninder Singh, who has picked up a Super 10 every time he has played Haryana Steelers, gets another. And it is again Vikas Kale involved in the point. In Dharmaraj's absence, Haryana needs Vikas to be on the mat as much as possible tonight'.

1-0 A successful raid from Maninder Singh sees Bengal Warriors take the first point of the match. He missed the bonus line but Vikas Kale's unnecessary lunge gives away the point.

— The big news is that Dharmaraj Cheralathan doesn't start this game. What strategy has Rakesh Kumar picked today, in his absence?

* TEAMS!

Bengal Warriors: K.Prapanjan, Mayur Shivtarkar, Jeeva Kumar, Mohammad Nabibaksh, Maninder Singh, Baldev Singh and Rinku Narwal.

Haryana Steelers: Vikas Khandola, Vikas Kale, Ravi Kumar, Prashanth Kumar Rai, Vinay, Siunil and Kuldeep Singh.

* Some milestones to look out for: Ravi Kumar (HS) needs 5 tackle points to reach 150 tackle points in PKL while Vikas Kale (HS) needs 8 tackle points to reach 100 tackle points in PKL.

— While we wait for action to start, check out this video we did on Haryana Steelers' captain and veteran Dharmaraj Cheralathan. He has seen four generations of players come and go while he continues to stay loyal to the mat. At 44, he is fitter than ever and is giving players half his age a run for their money.

 

* Haryana Steelers' record this season: 10 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie. Unbeaten in its last seven matches (6 wins, 1 tie), it is currently third in the table.

A win by more than seven points will take Haryana to second in the table while a loss does not change its position.

* Bengal Warriors' record this season: 9 wins, 4 losses and 3 ties. Unbeaten in the last 4 matches (3 Wins, 1 Tie), it currently sits second in the table.

A win today would see it stay in the same position in the table while a loss by a margin of more than 7 points would move it down to third.

* Earlier this season, both teams served up a closely fought contest with Haryana notching up a narrow 36-33 win. Some stats from that match:

• Both Vikas Kandola (11 raid points) and Vinay (9 raid points) contributed towards Haryana’s success.

• Dharmaraj Cheralathan led from the front picking 4 tackle points with a tackle SR of 80.

• Maninder Singh’s Super 10 (15 raid points) went in vain as Bengal’s defence had an off day scoring just 5 tackle points in total.

* Bengal Warriors and Haryana Steelers have met only thrice in Pro Kabaddi League so far and the head-to-head is in favour of the latter, which has won on all three occasions.

And to make things interesting, Bengal Warriors is yet to win a game only against Haryana Steelers in PKL. Can it set that record straight tonight?

 

You can watch the live streaming of all the Pro Kabaddi matches on Hotstar.