Ahmedabad: Gujarat Fortunegiants got off to a flying start to their home leg as they crushed Bengal Warriors 35-23 in an inter-zonal clash of the Pro Kabaddi Season 6 at The Arena by Transtadia here on Friday, November 16.
K. Prapanjan led the charts for Gujarat, scoring 9 points and was ably supported by Ajay Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal.
Bengal Warriors were in the match for the first 10 minutes but never recovered from the all-out they suffered in the first half. Maninder Singh and Jang Kun Lee couldn’t live up to their high standards as the visitors suffered a second consecutive defeat.
Ajay and Maninder got a couple of raid points to get their teams going in the first five minutes. Prapanjan’s two-point raid gave Gujarat a 6-5 lead in the sixth minute.
Both teams were jostling for points and refused to give an inch in what was a closely contested first half. Maninder scored another raid point in the ninth minute to hand Bengal a 9-8 lead.
In the 14th minute, Gujarat grabbed the advantage by inflicting an all out to lead 14-11. Their defence ended the first half strongly by sending Lee and Maninder to the bench. At half time, Gujarat Fortunegiants led 19-14.
A super tackle forced by Bengal Warriors in the 23rd minute reduced the deficit to four points.
Gujarat, however, were in no mood to allow Bengal make a comeback. Ajay’s successful raid in the 28th minute led Gujarat to inflict another all out as they extended their lead to 27-18.
With less than five minutes to go, Gujarat enjoyed a healthy 12-point advantage, before picking up a few more raid and tackle points in the last couple of minutes to wrap up an easy 35-23 win.