Bengal Warriors lift maiden PKL title
Ahmedabad, Oct 19: A clinical Bengal Warriors on Saturday clinched their maiden Pro Kabaddi League title by defeating Dabang Delhi 39-34 in a pulsating summit clash here.
Naveen Kumar was brilliant once again with 18 raid points for Delhi but uncharacteristic errors cost their title hopes in front of a packed audience, including Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, at the EKA Arena by TransStadia.
The Warriors did not have the services of star raider and captain Maninder Singh but got support with his presence as assistant coach of the team in the final match of Season Seven.
The pressure of the final got to the Warriors in the early minutes as Delhi stormed to a 6-0 lead. Naveen Kumar certainly looked charged up for the event while Delhi's cover combination of Anil Kumar and Vishal Mane also seemed keen to stop any raider coming their way.
The Delhi side clinched their All-Out in the 8th minute to open a four-point lead but the Warriors were a different side after the restart. Stand-in captain Mohammad Nabibakhsh picked up his game, clinching valuable raid points, as the Warriors quickly reduced Delhi's lead.
Delhi's Iranian player Meraj Sheykh impressed as a substitute, picking up two raid points in pressure situations, but the Warriors secured their first All-Out with under four minutes remaining for the break.
The closely-contested first-half ended with the scores levelled at 17-17.
The Warriors maintained that momentum in the second half as they quickly got into the lead. Sukesh Hegde once again sizzled for the Warriors with some mature raiding, often getting the better of Ravinder Pahal in Delhi's left corner.
Perhaps the smartest move from the Warriors' camp was to deploy the experienced Jeeva Kumar in a shifting cover role, depending on the raider's strong foot.
The decision helped as the Warriors clinched another All-Out in the 8th minute of the half to open-up a 4-point lead.
Delhi's Naveen Kumar clinched his Super 10 in the 10th minute (21st consecutive) but his side struggled to get a stranglehold of the match as Warriors corner combination of Rinku Narwal and Baldev Singh also got into the game.
The Warriors inflicted another All-Out with six minutes remaining to open-up a 10-point lead.
Naveen Kumar kept trying to script a comeback for the Delhi side, hitting the 300-point milestone in the process, but his work continuously got undone by uncharacteristic errors in the defence with the likes of Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal struggling.
The Warriors' defence held tight in the final minutes to secure their maiden Pro Kabaddi League title.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
