Iranian kabaddi player Fazel Atrachali fulfilled two promises, one to beat the Tamil Thalaivas and the second to catch Narender out for his 400th tackle point in the Pro Kabaddi League, all in one game as the Puneri Paltan beat the Thalaivas 35-34 in a match that had the crowd at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi on their feet on Wednesday.
A complete team performance saw Atrachali get five points, while Aslam Inamdar racked up six for the home team.
Much like the first time these two met in this leg, the Thalaivas were the ones off to a quick start and had rallied into a lead very early. Pune's raiders, by contrast, struggled to make an impact, registering a mere seven points in the first half. The Thalaivas inflicted the first ALL OUT of the game consolidating themselves into a 14-8 lead, as per a statement released by Pro Kabaddi League.
The one silver lining for the Paltan and the home fans came via Fazel Atrachali, who reached a personal milestone in the first half. Prior to their first encounter, the Iranian legend, then on 397 points, said he would love to make Narender his 400th tackle point the first defender to do so in the league. Alas, in a bruising first meeting it did not come to pass as Fazel was stranded with just one point in the game. Today, he got his 400th point, and duly it came on a Narender raid. Despite that though, the Thalaivas went into the break leading 18-12.
That Atrachali milestone galvanized the Paltan defence in the second half, as the home team inched their way back into the game. In a high-octane game of kabaddi, neither team was prepared to give an inch to the other, and neither streaked ahead too far either. Atrachali got his HIGH FIVE with a tackle on Narender again as the Paltan pulled to within four points with five minutes remaining.
Paltan came clutch in that period, inflicting their first ALL OUT of the game to surge into a 33-30 lead. With barely two minutes remaining it seemed like the Paltan had stitched up the perfect heist, only for a silly error right at the end, getting the Thalaivas to within one point, with two raids available. With their final raid, Paltan's Akash Shinde coaxed an error out of Sagar, and from there on, only one team was going to be the winner, as the crowd went into raptures.
( With inputs from ANI )
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