Khalsa Warriors beat United Singhs to keep unbeaten streak in World Kabaddi League
– Man of the match: Manjot Singh Gill of Khalsa Warriors
– Best Raider: Manjot Singh Gill of Khalsa Warriors (17 raids)
– Best Stopper: Gurpreet Singh of Khalsa Warriors (5 stops)
– Khalsa Warriors pull away in second half
– Khalsa Warriors extend lead to seven points over nearest rivals
Jalandhar, September 20: Khalsa Warriors, so far the most dominant team of the Wave World Kabaddi League put even more distance between themselves and the rest with a 57-50 win over United Singhs in the first match on Saturday. The only unbeaten side of the Wave WKL, which has been on a rampage, won their seventh match in eight games, with one tie also against their name.
Khalsa Warriors now have 15 points from eight matches while United Kings stayed at eight after seven matches alongside Lahore Lions (in six matches) and Yo Yo Tigers (in seven matches).
With most teams having faced each other at least once they seemed to have got a better understanding of the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses. As a result, the early part of the matches tend to be very tight as it was between Khalsa and United, when they were tied 13-13 after the first quarter and it became 27-26 for Khalsa at the midway stage.
As the match entered the second half, Khalsa stepped up a gear to affect some good raids and stops to grab a five-point lead in the third session alone and it gave them an overall six-point advantage at 43-37 to give them a decent base to launch an offensive in the last session.
The first quarter witnessed a neck-and- neck tussle with Shafiq Muhammad Butt of United Singhs opening the quarter with a successful raid because and then a double touch foul by Khalsa Warriors in the next minute added to the confidence of United Singh.
Then Khalsa found their feet as strong raids by Gagandeep Singh Jogewal and Jasmanpreet Raju of Khalsa Warrior brought them back quickly into the game. United Singhs Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu easily outplayed the opposing captain Gurmeet Singh in fourth minute, but this see-saw battle continued as the first quarter ended 13-all.
The second quarter of the match started with an excellent stop by Gurpreet Singh also called Gopi who stopped Shafiq Muhammad Butt. The United Singhs Sandeep Singh made two successful raids in a short period before Khalsa stoppers Gopi and Satnam Singh Sattu came into their form to give their side a slight edge 27-26.
Khalsa Warriors, who have been very tenacious in the Wave WKL, seemed determined to move ahead in the third quarter as the game became more tensed. Khalsa Warriors’ success in raids by their stars Gagandeep and Manjot Singh Gill took their team into a strong position. Shafiq Muhammad Butt who had been stopped a bit by Khalsa was once again his aggressive self as he won some points. But by the end of this quarter Khalsa Warrior built a slight advantage at 39-35.
In the final session that edge stayed with Khalsa who closed the match at 57-50. Manjot Singh Gill and Jasmanpreet Singh were once again their star raiders. The seven-point gap might seem big but at no stage were United Singhs outplayed in the match.
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