Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 22 of PKL 5

Gujarat Fortunegiants played their first game after a successful home leg in Ahmedabad when they locked horns with Puneri Paltan in Lucknow on Tuesday. They triumphed over Puneri Paltan with much ease riding on the back of another stupendous defensive performance which saw Fazel Atrachali score the highest tackle points in a match by a defender.

In the other match on the night, UP Yoddha met Bengal Warriors and put up an entertaining display of Kabaddi that swung to and fro before the Warriors picked up their second win over the UP Yoddha. As for the Yoddha, the team has a lot of rethinking to do as they head back to the drawing board before the last few games of a home leg where they are yet to taste victory.

Here are the five talking points from the day.

#1 Same old, same old

The performances of Gujarat Fortunegiants have begun to remind of a team whose jersey's colour they matched on Tuesday. In the last couple of weeks, the men in yellow have played like the mighty Australian cricket team did in the 2000s.

Against Puneri Paltan, one of the better units in the league, Fortunegiants produced a performance that had deja vu written all over it. They started slowly as the raids didn't produce a lot of points and seemed to be falling behind when the defence came to their rescue.

And then things started turning Gujarat's way as Atrachali, this time in a leading role instead of being a supporting cast, started pinning down one Paltan defender after the other. Abozar Mighani, slower off the blocks on Tuesday than other days, came into his own in the second half and brought up four points of his own to pile on the misery on the opposition. In all, the two brought the team 13 defence points and won them another match in the competition.

#2 Hooda's horrid night

Deepak Niwas Hooda has been a standout performer for whichever team he has appeared in the Pro Kabaddi League. More than any wizardry, he earns points with his quick thinking and by putting his tall height to good use.

On Tuesday, however, nothing worked for him as he came up against what's quickly turning into one of the best defence units. Anything he would do, Mighani and Atrachali had an answer to it.

Even young Parvesh Bhainswal and Sachin had the better of him. Out of his 15 raid attempts, only four won him points. By the time his bonus point came, it seemed he had almost given up on touch points as he ran across the court, took the bonus and came back to allow his team more time to claw their way back into the match. That didn't happen though as Gujarat defence proved too good for any raider from Puneri Paltan side.

#3 Lee's special scorpion

Korean Jang Kun Lee is known to produce magic on the mat from time to time. Even on days when his raid attempts don’t bring in a lot of points for the team, he can light up the show with some magical moves. Tuesday was one of those days as his raiding didn’t fire as much as the Warriors would have liked, yet one of those points were acquired by his trademark scorpion kick.

It was in the 13th minute of the game when the Warriors were in a commanding position that Lee came in to raid. Lee could have taken an empty raid and gone away but he hardly ever comes in with that mindset and straightaway went on the offensive trying his toe touches on all the Yoddha men on the mat.

He had already pushed Hadi Tajik into the right corner and forced him to be on his toes when he turned around and unleashed the scorpion on him. Poor Tajik had no place to go as he was already on the verge of losing his footing and ended up becoming an easy prey to the Korean.

#4 Hara Kiri at half-time

There was a lot of sanity in the proceedings between Bengal and UP till the 17th minute of the match between Bengal and UP and the one writing the script from above wasn’t possibly enjoying it. At least that’s what it seemed from what panned out in the next three minutes as a whopping 12 points were scored by both the teams in that passage of the game. The score was 13-8 and the Warriors had taken a vice like grip on the proceedings when Rajesh Narwal came to raid.

He first took out a defender with a hand touch before overcoming a pouncing defender and then got lucky when Ran Singh couldn’t control himself trying a tackle and ended up touching a retreating Narwal to gift him three points. With just two UP Yoddha players left on the mat, Warriors must have fancied their chances of inflicting an All Out but they could only helplessly see Jang Kun Lee getting a Super Tackle from Santhosh. And, in absolutely no time, the game had come to level pegging.

The drama was still not over, though, as, when it seemed both the teams will go tied into the half time, Deepak Narwal enjoyed a stroke of luck. One of the two Yoddha on the mat, Nitin Tomar, tripped on his shoelaces while making an unsuccessful tackle attempt and Narwal took advantage of it to send both the UP men on the mat to go into the half time with a 5 point lead again.

#5 Conservative UP pays the price for its approach

Despite boasting of some of the most fearsome names in their raiding department, UP Yoddha have been guilty of playing too conservatively and their one point loss to the Warriors on Tuesday night owed much to the same approach.

The fact that the team has been winless for five games can simply be attributed to the fact that the team hasn't shown enough fire in their belly. Every time they have reached a position of strength, they haven't tried to push the pedal and instead have resorted to conservative play.

In the last match against Gujarat, the team had put in 23 empty raids which was instrumental in helping the opposition build their confidence and come back to score raid points. Against Warriors too, the Yoddha had come to level pegging after a hopeless start but always failed to hold on to it because of their negative mindset.