Bulls seal berth in semifinal

 After their stellar performance against a below par Dabang Delhi, Bengaluru Bulls knew they were up against a tougher opponent in Telugu Titans in their all-important last home game.

But the hosts, unperturbed by the pressure, produced a fine all-round performance to thump Telugu Titans 43-29 and storm into the semifinals of the Pro Kabaddi League here.
In front of a packed Independence Day crowd at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Saturday, which also saw the presence of cricket legend Rahul Dravid, the Bulls tore apart the Telugu unit to consolidate their third spot with 43 points.

Despite the defeat, the Titans stayed in the second spot with 45 points.
The Bengaluru unit continued from where they had left against Delhi and dominated the battle throughout. As early as the sixth minute of the match, the hosts produced their first all-out of the match, following a brilliant raid from the in-form Ajay Thakur.

Leading 10-2, it was time to add more misery on the Hyderabad based team as the Bulls picked points at will and finished the first half at 19-9.

In a fitting finale to the home leg, the Bulls seemed to have found their winning combination right as all their experienced players came to the party. Thakur finally showed why he is one of the most feared raiders in the league and dazzled with six points. He was instrumental in keeping the Bulls ahead by picking points at regular intervals.

Skipper Manjeet Chillar, led by example and turned out to be the lethal weapon in the Bulls’ arsenal. Chillar (9) backed up his good raiding with excellent tackling to keep his side under total control. Apart from these two stalwarts, it was the performance of Rajesh Mondal that would make the Bulls breathe easy ahead of the semifinals.

The under fire Bengal player (5) stood tall in the second half and enthralled the crowd with tricky raids. Dharamaraj Cheralathan (7) too chipped in as the hosts kept marching on.

Though the Titans showed a late fight fightback with an all out with eight minutes remaining,  it proved to be too little against a resilient Bulls who were leading 29-23.
Mumba march on

Earlier, the U Mumba juggernaut rolled on as they got past Patna Pirates 32-27 to register their 11th win of the season.

Mumbai stay at the top with 55 points from 12 matches. Patna, despite the defeat, did well to pick one point and remained in the fifth spot with 31 points.

Points table

Teams     Mat               Won             Lost           Drawn     Pts
U Mumba    12    11    1     0     55
Telugu Titans     13    7    3    3    45
Bengaluru Bulls    13    8    5    0    43
Pink Panthers    12    6    5    1    36
Patna Pirates    12    5    6    1    31
Dabang Delhi    13    4    8    1    26
Bengal Warriors    13    3    9    1    22
Puneri Paltan    10    1    8    1    14