Steelers slay Paltan in PKL

Vikas Kandola was once again unstoppable as Haryana Steelers cruised to a 41-27 victory against Puneri Paltan in a Vivo Pro Kabaddi match here on Monday.

The star raider clinched a Super 10 (11 raid points) as his team outperformed the Pune unit in all departments to jump to the second on the points table.

The match had been billed as an encounter between the hard-tackling Pune side and the raid heavy Haryana team.

Nitin Tomar started brightly for Pune as the five-star raider produced a 'Dubki' to take out the experienced Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Vikas Kandola in the second minute.

Super Tackles, a big source of points in Season 7, kept the scores ticking as the match became a cagey affair towards the end of the first half. But two multi-point raids by in-form Vikas Kandola forced an All-Out on Pune and handed over the momentum to Haryana. The half ended with Haryana leading 18-11.

The Steelers came into the game after three wins in as many games and they started the second half with renewed energy. Vikas Kandola was in the thick of things once again but Haryanas raiding duo of Vinay Kumar and Prashanth Kumar Rai were more than an able support crew to Kandola, picking up vital points whenever the star raider went out.

Haryana enforced another All-Out on Pune with less than 9 minutes left in the match to all but seal the game.