Pro Kabaddi 2018: Puneri Paltan beat Haryana Steelers 34-22
Chennai, Oct 8: Puneri Paltan produced a solid all-round team performance to beat Haryana Steelers 34-22 to register their first win of Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season VI here Monday.
Nitin Tomar led from the front as he scored seven points and was ably supported by G B More and Deepak Kumar Dahiya who scored six and five points respectively.
For Haryana Steelers, it was a disappointing night for the raiders as apart from Vikas Kandola (8 points) no one else contributed much.
Haryana Steelers were quick off the blocks with their defence and raiders scoring two points each as they led 4-2 after 7 minutes. Puneri Paltan defence scored their first point of the match in the 7th minute as they trailed 3-4. Both teams traded raid and tackle points in the next few minutes as Haryana Steelers held a slender 7-6 lead after 13 minutes.
More did the bulk of scoring for Pune as he had four points in the first 15 minutes. Surender Nada earned two tackle points for Haryana's defence. It was a low-scoring affair in the first half as both teams played on the do-or-die raids.
Nitin Tomar scored with a two-point raid as Puneri Paltan inflicted the first all out of the match in the 19th minute to take 14-8 lead. In the last five minutes of the first half Puneri Paltan turned the match on its head as they scored eight straight points compared to Haryana's solitary point. At the end of the first half, Puneri Paltan led 15-9.
Haryana Steelers started the second half better as they scored five points to trail 14-18. Nitin Tomar, however, had different ideas as he scored with a two-point raid in the 27th minute to lead 20-14.
Puneri Paltan managed the game quite well as they contained the Steelers' raiders very well. With just five minutes to go, Puneri Paltan had opened a nine-point gap. In the 36th minute, another all out was inflicted by Pune as they led 30-17.
The 'brave moments' of the match belonged to Nitin Tomar who suffered an injury but continued to battle on for his team. In the 19th minute, Tomar helped Pune inflict a crucial all out from which Haryana never recovered.
Puneri Paltan made little work of Haryana Steelers in the second half as they ran out comfortable winners.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
