Vikash Kandola was the star for Haryana Steelers as they beat neighbours Dabang Delhi KC 36-33 in Match 68 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 at The Sheraton Grand, Whitefield, Bengaluru.
The Steelers captain scored a Super 10 (13 points) in a dominant display by his team. Coach Rakesh Kumar's Haryana had a brief scare in the game when 5 players entered the lobby without a touch on the raider, but they kept calm to ensure they came away with all 5 points. Delhi desperately missed their star raider Naveen Kumar's services.
Haryana dominated the first 20 minutes with Vikash Kandola taking up the primary raiding duties. He was supported well by Vinay and Ashish as they clinched an ALL OUT close to the 15th minute of the game.
The Delhi defenders had a poor outing with no successful tackles before the interval. With Naveen Kumar still out, the raiding duties had fallen on the shoulders of Vijay and Sandeep Narwal.
The latter tried his best and was perhaps the only positive for Delhi in a first half that ended 19-11 in Haryana's favour.
Krishan got two tackle points from the right corner for Delhi as they planned a comeback. But Steelers' Vikash Kandola ensured Delhi remained on the backfoot with his classic fast raiding. Fate had other plans for the Steelers though as 5 of their defenders followed Delhi raider in the lobby without a touch.
The move resulted in 5 points for Delhi and revived their team back on the mat. Vikash Kandola delayed the ALL OUT with his brave raiding that got him a SUPER 10 but Delhi eventually got it with 7 minutes remaining to reduce Haryana's lead to 3 points.
The upset Steelers looked uncertain the defence after the ALL OUT as Delhi's Neeraj Narwal picked up two 2-point raids to level the scores.
But young Jaideep took the matter into his own hands in the dying minutes and pulled off two stunning tackles for Haryana. That gave Haryana the lead and Delhi failed to close the gap with their raids.
( With inputs from ANI )
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