Pro Kabaddi League: Bengaluru Bulls beat Bengal Warriors 24-23

Rohit Kumar produced a stellar performance in the last five minutes to guide Bengaluru Bulls to a nail-bitting 24-23 win over Bengal Warriors in the third game of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League in Mumbai on Sunday.

It was a battle of defences as both teams put in a solid performance but it was the Bulls who kept their cool and emerged victorious.

For long spells in the game, it looked like the Warriors would come out on top but the Bulls' star man Rohit Kumar helped Bengaluru to stage a remarkable comeback.

In the first half, Rohit Kumar was kept quiet by the Warriors defence and he failed to score a single point in the first 10 minutes. It looked like a struggle for the raiders and neither team made a single do-or-die raid in the first 10 minutes. Rohit Kumar finally scored his first point with his sixth raid. However, it was Jang Kun Lee who lifted the Warriors as he came on the 17th minute. Lee came up with a brilliant super raid in the 19th minute to give the Warriors a single point lead as the half ended with the score at 11-10.

Rohit Kumar showed glimpses of his brilliance and he scored vital two points with a raid in the 18th minute. Bulls' defender Surendra Nada inflicted a super tackle to level the game at 13-13 at the start of the second half.

Lee, however, was in top form and scored with another raid as Nada failed with a double thigh hold. But Bulls responded immediately with Deepak Kumar Dahiya, who not only scored two points but also put Kun Lee and Warriors' captain Nilesh Shinde on the bench to tie the score at 15-15.

The first all out of the game came in the 13th minute of the second half and with it stretched the Warriors lead to six points with the score settling at 21-15. But Bengal Warriors made two tactical errors in the last five minutes and Rohit Kumar capitalised on them. With the score 23-21 in favour of the Warriors, the Bulls picked the perfect time to inflict their first all out and get a slender lead of one point. The Bulls hung on in the last minute to pull off a stunning victory in their opening game.