Ahmedabad: Tamil Thalaivas kicked off their Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) 2023 campaign by beating Dabang Delhi with a scoreline of 42-31. The team registered a victory thanks to Ajinkya Pawar's brilliant performance which earned him 21 points in the fixture. Naveen Kumar and Ashu Malik were superb for Delhi securing 14 and nine points respectively. However, both of their efforts were not enough to help Dabangs defeat the opposition.
It was a close contest till half-time as Thalaivas were leading by 18-14. However, Ajinkya Pawar started to dazzle with his raids in the second half of the game. He first delivered a super raid when his team was on verge of an all-out and then topped it up with another multi-point raid. He gathered 14 touch points and also 3 tackle points during his stay on the mat. Also, he registered only 1 unsuccessful raid during his performance.
Anshu Malilk was performing good for Delhi as he was successful in eight raids out of 13 but was substituted on 30th minute.
The second match of the day turned out to be a topsy-turvy affair with Gujarat Giants beating Bengaluru Bulls by a scoreline of 34-31. Bengaluru Bulls took a narrow lead by 10th minute but their opponents were back in the hunt in the second half as both teams started outscoring each other. Bengaluru's defence performed better in the game as compared to their opposition but Gujarat's effective strike rate in raids helped them win by a slim margin.
Sonu was the athlete with highest points in the match as he amassed 12 points from a total of 20 raids for Gujarat.
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