Bengaluru hand Pune fourth loss

A second-half surge helped Bengaluru Bulls bounce back in style and hand Puneri Paltan their fourth successive loss in the Pro Kabaddi League at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here today.
Bengaluru were slow to start with and trailed 12-13 at half time but were quick to regroup to take away the match with a convincing 31-26 win.
Captain Manjeet Chillar put up an allround show in both raid and tackle to log six points.
Chillar was finely supported by Ashish Chhokar who carded six raid points including three bonus points to be awarded 'Best Raider'.
Local lad Rajest Mondal too impressed in front of the home crowd as he chipped in with four raid points and was instrumental in Bengaluru's comeback from behind.

This was Bengaluru's third win from four matches and they remained on third place with 15 points in the table.

Puneri Paltan, on the other hand, lost another fine opportunity after leading till the break to stick to the bottom of the table with three points from four straight losses.
The Pune team had a brilliant defence in Manoj Kumar's superb tackle points as he was adjudged 'Best Defender', but that was not enough as they were severely let down by their lacklustre raids.
By the half an hour mark, as Bengaluru Bulls went six points up, they never looked back.

Captain Wazir and Tushar Patil had given Pune a 4-0 lead and were ahead 12-8 to start with, but Bengaluru soon regained the lost ground with Chhokar's fine 16th minute raid.
Bengaluru soon looked a regrouped unit and combined well in the defence too as they pinned down Pune captain Wazir and reduced the lead to one point at half time.
Holding on to their momentum even after the changeover, Bengaluru levelled it 13-13 with Mondal's successful raid.
Bengaluru gained the lead in the 22nd minute through a calculated tackle to knock out Pune's Pravin Niwale.