Warriors down Dabang for first win

Bengal Warriors downed Dabang Delhi 31-23 to register their maiden win of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League (Season IV) here on Monday.

The first half was a closely fought affair but Meraj Sheykh came up with two brilliant plays to give the Delhi side a slender 14-13 lead. With the danger of an all-out looming, Meraj Sheykh scored two points with a brilliant raid and revived two players for Delhi in 14th minute. It was a sense of deja vu five minutes later when Sheykh repeated his feat of averting another all-out.

The Warriors, still reeling from their loss to Bengaluru Bulls, looked at their raider Jang Kun Lee for inspiration. The Warriors started brightly and after the first 10 minutes, led 6-3. Jang Kun Lee scored his first point with a fine raid in the 12th minute.

Sheykh started the second half in good form and averted another all out in third minute of second half. He then combined with Prashant Chavan to inflict a super tackle and earned two more points in the 15th minute. Sheykh ended up with seven points but it wasn’t enough for his team.

Bengal Warriors made a few tactical errors and missed two glorious opportunities to inflict an all out in the first half. Nitin Madane, raider for Warriors, looked out of sorts all night and yet was sent on for one raid too many. However, another raider for Warriors, Ravi Dalal scored two points with successive raids to tie the game at 18-18. The first all out came in the 10th minute of second half to get a three-point lead.

Dabang looked to their captain Kashiling Adake for inspiration but he had a quiet night and scored only two points.

Ravi Dalal inflicted a super raid in the 17th minute of the second half to score three more points for the Warriors to extend their lead by seven points. In the last minute, the Warriors inflicted an all-out to record a comfortable victory.

Champs Patna score
In the other match, defending champions Patna Pirates beat Puneri Paltan 30-24.
Women set to fire

Three teams -- Fire Birds, Ice Divas and Storm Queens -- will be vying for honours in the Women’s Kabaddi Challenge starting from Tuesday in Mumbai.

An initiative by the AKFI in association with Mashal Sports, the Challenge will reveal three teams -- Fire Birds captained by Mamtha Poojari, Ice Divas captained by Abhilasha Mhatre and Storm Queens captained by Tejeswini Bai.

The first match will be played on Tuesday at the DOME SVP, National Sports Club of India in Mumbai with the finals set to be hosted alongside the Men’s Pro Kabaddi Finals on July 31 at Hyderabad.