PKL 7: Delhi Maintains Top Spot Despite Losing To Bengal

While Bengal skipper Maninder starred for his side with a stunning 13 raid points, he faced a tough challenge from Delhi's young sensation Naveen, who too, delivered his best with 15 raid points.

Despite going down 33-42 against Bengal Warriors, table toppers Dabang Delhi maintain their position in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) points-table, after a contest where the top raiders from both the sides -- Naveen Kumar and Maninder Singh -- were up against each other here on Monday. While Bengal skipper Maninder starred for his side with a stunning 13 raid points, he faced a tough challenge from Delhi's young sensation Naveen, who too, delivered his best with 15 raid points. While Maninder enjoyed equal support from Sukesh Hedge (7 points) and Iranian Mohammad Nabibakhsh (5 points), Naveen lacked major support from his teammates even as Chandran Ranjit and Anil Kumar chipped in with a vital six and three points respectively. The Bengal skipper opened his team's account with a successful raid in the opening minutes before Ranjit too, responded for Delhi to level the scoreline. With both the top sides of this year's league trading frequent points, the score was levelled at 4-4 in the 4th minute. The trio of Sukesh, Maninder and Nabibakhsh continued to fetch points for Bengal while some below par show from the Delhi side saw their opponents taking a 17-11 lead with seven minutes left in the first-half. There was no looking back for Bengal as they went on to dominate Delhi, taking a huge 25-14 lead after the end of the first-half. Naveen started with a successful raid in the second-half before Maninder replied in a similar fashion to keep the lead for Bengal mounting. The Bengal trio didn't give Delhi any area to make any onslaught and kept on bringing points when Naveen seemed single-handedly trying to drive his team forward. With just five minutes left in the contest, Bengal had taken a 40-31 lead and despite Naveen's efforts Delhi couldn't match their opponents as they went down 33-42. Despite the result, both the teams have already qualified for the PKL play-offs.