File photo of Pawan Sehrawat
Pawan Sehrawat's stellar performance guided Bengaluru Bulls to a 46-24 victory against Haryana Steelers in match 125 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8. The Bulls desperately needed a win to stay in contention for a playoff spot and their captain delivered on cue. The "high flyer" scored 20 points (which included 7 tackle points) with a dominant second-half performance that took the match completely away from the Steelers.
Haryana missed out on an opportunity to secure a playoff berth with the loss and will now have to beat table-toppers Patna Pirates in their final league match. Bengaluru completed all of their 22 games and now they will wait for other results to learn their fate.
The defences dominated the first half with both sets of raiders struggling to any impact. The Steelers had no raid points in 15 minutes as the Bulls tackled relentlessly. Even their raiders Bharat, Pawan Sehrawat and Chandran Ranjit contributed with tackle points as they pushed for an ALL OUT.
Haryana's defence did try their level best to keep the team in the game. Surender Nada picked up 3 quick tackle points from the left corner in the early minutes. Vijay Kumar also initiated a wonderful Super Tackle on Bharat to keep Haryana in the hunt.
With 3 minutes remaining to halftime, Ashish produced a 3-point Super Raid which could have led to a mini-revival. But Bharat's raids and the Bulls' high-pressure defence finally helped them clinch an ALL OUT in the last minute of the first half. That opened a healthy lead for Bengaluru as Haryana looked for immediate solutions. The scores were 20-14 in their favour at the break.
Pawan Sehrawat switched gears as he started dominating the raids in the second half. Bharat also contributed as they inflicted another ALL OUT in the 7th minute to widen their lead to 11 points.
Haryana coach Rakesh Kumar introduced Meetu in the second half to bolster the attack but he also struggled against a switched-on Bulls defence. The lead was 12 points with 10 minutes remaining in the match.
Pawan Sehrawat produced a Super Tackle with 6 minutes remaining to ensure the Bulls maintained a 12-point gap. They kept on piling the pressure and improved the lead to 16 points.
Pawan secured his Super 10 and the men from Bengaluru inflicted another ALL OUT in the last raid of the match to get themselves a 22-point win.
