PKL 2019 | How did Dabang Delhi KC manage to overcome Telugu Titans' challenge in campaign opener
Dabang Delhi have started the seventh season of the PKL with an exciting one-point win against Telugu Titans at the latter’s home venue in Hyderabad. Naveen Kumar had a great day at the office in the raiding department while the corner combination of Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal did wonders.
Rash tackle attempts by corner defenders Abozar Mighani and Vishal Bhardwaj
Both the teams had strong corner combinations. With Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal in the Delhi camp, the Titans also had Abozar Mighani and Vishal Bhardwaj at those positions. However, the Titans’ corners poor run continued in their third match as well. Out of Bhardwaj’s seven tackle attempts, four were unsuccessful while Abozar had three unsuccessful tackles and failed to register a point to his name.
The Iranian started off on a bad note in the first half itself. One such terrible attempt to tackle by the Iranian was in the 14th minute of the match where he wanted to stop Vijay from the back when the Delhi player was already on his way back. He was close to the midline and ambitious advance tackle attempt by the Telugu skipper went in vain.
Abozar Mighani going for an advance tackle © Bhardwaj also came up with a very poor effort which surprised the Telugu bench. It was a Super Tackle opportunity for the home side with three defenders on the mat against Naveen. The raider had already a great day at the office for the Dabang team but Bhardwaj wanted to tackle him. He dived for an ankle hold but Naveen was in control and had anticipated this at the left corner of the mat. It was easier for the young Delhi lad to get back to his own half by sending Bhardwaj off the mat. Not only the corner duo, Farhad Milaghardan had also gifted a point to Naveen in the last raid of the first half which helped Delhi go into the break with a point lead at 13-12.
Ravinder Pahal’s effectiveness against Siddharth Desai at the right corner
Siddharth Desai, after two terrible games, had a good start against Delhi with a point to start with. However, the challenge for him was going straight into Pahal who was standing at the right corner of the mat. Even the host broadcaster had promoted the game as a battle between Siddharth ‘Bahabali’ and Pahal ‘The Hawk’. In the second raid for Desai, it was Pahal who dived straight onto the ankle of Siddharth and the strong grip by the Delhi right corner ensured that the raider was down.
In a Do or Die raid in the first half, Pahal kept his cool against Siddharth. He had blocked the path of the raider coming from the blind side which made it difficult for Siddharth to escape and eventually the Telugu player tried to jump over Pahal but the Delhi defender brought him down with a strong thigh hold. Another ankle hold by the right corner defender against Siddharth, with six minutes to go in the match, almost dashed the hopes of the Hyderabad-based team.
Ravinder Pahal blocking Siddharth Desai in one of the raids © Miscalculation by Telugu Titans in last two minutes
Suraj’s three successful raids in the last four minutes of the game had kept the scoreline close with Delhi leading 33-31. The Titans still had enough chance to finish the game on a tie or even win the game. But, after an empty raid by Naveen, Armaan went for a quick empty raid where the team miscalculated for the first time in the dying moments of the game. The team perhaps would have thought playing on a Do or Die raid but Delhi still had a two point lead and there was no chance of a Super Tackle for the Titans as well. Armaan returning with a quick empty raid didn’t go well for the Titans.
However, Vishal’s thigh hold against Chandran Ranjit in the next raid made it a one-point game but Joginder put in a valiant tackle to increase the lead to two again. Naveen had come for the penultimate raid with the Titans still having an opportunity of ending the game on a tie. Although Naveen stood for a long time close to the defenders after crossing the Baulk Line, none of the Telugu players came up to tackle the Delhi youngster. Suraj had to wipe out two points in the last raid and he was given a touch by Pahal but there was still a chance of going for another one as the Delhi defenders looked a bit confused. However, the debutant got back to his own half and Delhi eventually managed to win the game in spite of Suraj ending with 18 points in the match.
Joginder Narwal’s importance in Delhi camp
After guiding the team into the playoffs last year with his tackles and his captaincy, Joginder had a big impact in Delhi’s win yesterday. Delhi inflicted an all-out in the second half after Joginder tackled Siddharth by coming from the blind side right after Suraj had saved the home side from getting all-out. The Super Tackle against Milaghardan with seven minutes to go in the game had put Delhi back in the lead and turned the course of the game. Before the tackle, the score was 28-27 in Titans’ favour thanks to the four-point raid by Suraj.
Joginder Narwal registers a Super Tackle to his name © Joginder’s ankle hold against young Armaan in the last minute widened the margin to two points in Delhi’s favour and was the last nail in the coffin. However, these tackles were not the only reason why Joginder is important for the team. That is further highlighted when he was not there on the mat. After getting tackled via a toe touch by Siddharth, the left corner defender was off the mat in the ninth minute of the match after which the visitors struggled to collect tackle points for quite some time and Siddharth had managed to send Ranjit on the bench in the very next raid. So, the skipper led from the front and helped Delhi register a win against the home team which was the third in a row for the Titans. After the win in their first game of the league, Joginder would have said Abozar, “Buraa naa maano, Delhi hai.”
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