Hyderabad: The Bengal Warriors looked to be headed for a defeat for most of the game against the dominant Bengaluru Bulls, but roared back in style in the final minutes to clinch a 41-38 victory at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.
Maninder Singh and Shrikant Jadhav starred for the Warriors with 12 & 9 points respectively.
The Bengal Warriors drew first blood in the fast-paced early exchanges, with Maninder Singh’s Super Raid giving them the momentum. The Bulls however landed a Super Tackle on Maninder with Aman leading the defensive charge and Bharat chipped in with raids, as the contest started to even out close to the 10-minute mark.
Maninder was in the mood and landed another multi-point raid soon after as the Warriors were looking to pull away, during a frantic half. While Maninder leading the charge in attack, the Warriors’ defence came to the party and overpowered their opponents, pulling away into a 6-point lead with just a little over 5 minutes to go in the first half. The Bulls though bounced back through Bharat and Neeraj Narwal surged into the lead at 22-18 at the end of the first half.
With the momentum on their side, Bharat started to pick up the points with relative ease in the first few minutes of the second half as the Bulls moved into an 8-point lead. Vikash Kandola effected a Super Raid soon after, putting more pressure on the Warriors.
Girish Maruti Ernak helped chip away at the lead and brought the Warriors back into the game, with just over 10 minutes to go. Maninder picked up a tackle point too as Bengal came within touching distance of the Bulls, just before the final phase of the game.
With less than 2 minutes to go, the Warriors trailed by 1 point and were firmly in the box seat. Shrikant Jadhav and Maninder then picked off some crucial raid points as the Warriors clinched a win in the final moments of the match.
–IANS