PKL 2018: Stellar defence gives Haryana win over Delhi

Pune, November 25: Haryana Steelers displayed some strong defence in both the halves to starve the Dabang Delhi KC. raiders for points and secure a 34-27 victory in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Sunday.

Dabang had some strong individual performances by Naveen Kumar and Ravinder Pahal but ultimately succumbed to an extremely disciplined looking Haryana Steelers side.

Both teams started the first half backing their defence and that resulted in 9 of the first 15 points of the game coming by way of tackle points.

🔙 to winning ways!#VivoProKabaddi's Northern derby witnessed some 🎇 on the mat as @HaryanaSteelers made sure they come out of #DELvHAR with full points! pic.twitter.com/cZ3G6SHGA0

— ProKabaddi (@ProKabaddi) November 25, 2018

Naveen Kumar was the only Dabang Delhi K.C. raider to have any success against the Haryana Steelers defence in this period and managed all three of the raid points scored by the team. However, once he was Dashed out by Sunil the Haryana Steelers took an 11-9 lead.

They managed to send Meraj Sheykh to the bench just before halftime to increase their lead to 4 points but a successful Thigh Hold by Ravinder Pahal on Naveen in the last Do-or-Die raid of the half took the scores to 13-10 in favour of Haryana Steelers at the break.

Haryana Steelers tackled Chandran Ranjit early in the second half and then took the lead to 7 points through Vikash Khandola's 2-point-raid. But this also brought Dabang Delhi K.C. down to three men and gave them an opportunity to pick up a Super Tackle with Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal still on the mat. However, Khandola neutralised that threat by expertly escaping Narwal's Thigh hold and then slipping away from a similar move by Pahal in the next raid to bring Dabang Delhi K.C. closer to an All-Out.

They finally managed to inflict it in the 7th minute by tackling Naveen Kumar to increase their lead to 9 points at 23-14. Pahal immediately reached his High 5 once he was back on the mat by tackling Goyat. But Naveen and Khandola brought Dabang Delhi K.C. down to three men on the mat once again by scoring three straight touch points.

The teams exchanged points from there as neither was able to gain a sizable momentum. Naveen Kumar kept the scoreboard ticking for Dabang Delhi K.C. and clocked up a Super 10 but Vikash Khandola managed to keep Haryana Steelers ahead by putting in some strong raids himself.

With the score at 34-25 in the closing minutes, Chandran Ranjit first managed a touch point in his team's last raid before the Dabang Delhi K.C. defence held down Vikash Khandola to give their team one point from the contest after a 7-point loss.

(Source: PKL Media)