Haryana Steelers snapped leaders Gujarat Fortunegiants' seven-match unbeaten run with a dominating 42-36 win in the Pro-Kabaddi League at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday. In the second match of the day, home favourites Bengal Warriors choked in dying seconds to settle for a 26-26 tie against UP Yoddha.
Trailing 11-14 at the break, Bengal Warriors did well to bounce back for a slender 25-24 lead in front of their star co-owner Akshay Kumar.
But they could not seal the issue for a third tie, extending their unbeaten run to six matches, two points clear of UP (33) at the top of Zone B table.
Earlier, eyeing their first win over Haryana in three outings, Gujarat had a solid seven-point lead at half time but faltered in last eight minutes with a fine all-out by Wazir Singh (9 points).
Prasanth Kumar Rai was the architect of Haryana's win with 14 raid points and two tackle points as he along with Singh combined well in the closing minutes to script a brilliant turnaround.
Gujarat, however, held on to their Zone A lead with 42 points from 11 matches but all their two losses have come against Haryana while they also have a tie against the same rivals.
Haryana now have 28 points from eight outings with four wins.
Gujarat were watchful to start with and had a slender one point advantage (4-3) in early three minutes before they rode on Sachin's incisive raids to stretch their lead to 15-10.
Wazir earned three points with a superb raid to curtail the deficit but that was the only moment of brilliance for Haryana in the first half as Gujarat raced to a 20-13 lead at half-time.
After the changeover, Gujarat extended their lead to 26-19 with 11 minutes left.
But Wazir had different ideas when he earned Haryana four points to make it 28-25 before Rai's raid enabled them trail past Gujarat with nine minutes to go.
There was no looking back for Haryana from there on and Wazir's all-out raid with five minutes left virtually sealed Gujarat's hope for a fightback.
