It was an eventful night at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium. The match started on a positive note, where both the teams picked up early points. Though initially, the home team took an early lead but we levelled things quickly. Skipper, Meraj Sheykh (7 points) and Abolfazl (4 points) were on song as the Iranian duo kept on swiping points on regular basis. Till the halfway stage things were neck-to-neck. But we took a 1 point lead, before going into the halftime with the scoreboard reading 13-14.
Post break the Panthers came hard on us but soon the tables were turned as R. Sriram (7 points) heroics got us back on the track. The defenders formed a chain which was difficult to break. Tushar (2 points) and Yatharth (2 points) kept the Panthers at bay. With each passing minute, the game was getting interesting as both the teams were not ready to give up on each other. Meraj Sheykh's brilliant raid in the dying moments helped us inflict an all-out on the hosts. R. Sriram displayed his class in a penultimate minute as his raid turned the momentum on our side. Then Viraj (2 points) and Nilesh's (1 point) mindblowing combined tackle in the final minute grabbed us a win from the jaws of defeat and in the end, we defeated the Jaipur Pink Panthers by 34-35.
Talking about milestones, from the team's point of view we completed 500 Total points and 300 Raid points in PKL 5. We also notched up 600 Successful tackles in PKL history. Mercurial Meraj, bought his 50th Tackle point along with 100th point in PKL 5.
We are taking on Bengaluru Bulls today at the same venue. Rohit Kumar is a star attraction for the Bulls as he along with Ajay Kumar add venom to their attack. Ravinder and Mahender are superb with their defensive skills. Overall, the Bulls are a tough nut to crack but with just two games in hand. We will look give our best on the mat by making the most out of these remaining games.