Maninder Singh was the star for the Bengal Warriors as they beat the Haryana Steelers 48-36 in the PKL 2019 match at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune today.
Maninder with a career-best of 18 raid points, was too much hot to handle for a Bengal defense missing their experiences captain Dharmaraj due to the injury. The victory helped the Bengal Warriors consolidate their stay in the second place of the points table.
The Warriors secured their third All Out in the second minute after half time, but the Steelers came back into the match strongly. Vinay three-point Super Raid in the third minute was even followed by a four-point raid by the Vikas Kandola which even secured the Steelers a vital All Out in the fifth minute of the second half. But the Warriors defenders steadied the ship once again, with the Baldev picking up his 5 in the minute.
Vikas Kandola and Vinay kept picking up points for the Steelers to reduce the Bengal men on the mat but Prapanjan’s consistency in his raids, including a two-point raid in with under 4 minutes left in the match, meant the Haryana side couldn’t inflict the All-Out they badly wanted.
Haryana’s loss exposed the lack of depth in the defense and coach Rakesh Kumar will be looking to quickly address the issue to prevent negative results in the most crucial part of the season.
