The Match in a Tweet

Raiders Come to the Party

The Fortune Giants went into this inter-zone fixture with a couple of changes in their starting seven – Mahendra Rajput and Ajay Kumar came in for K. Prapanjan and Hadi.

Ajay Kumar took the honours of the first raid and brought home a point with a smooth hand-touch. In quick time, he added two more points to his tally. The young raider was riding high on his confidence from the previous match, where he came off the bench to turn the game around.

Sachin Tanwar too supported Ajay ably in the early minutes of the game. Sachin Tanwar scoring raid points was never in question, the fact that he was successfully completing tackles was a bonus. Since the previous encounter, it seemed like Sachin was auditioning for the tag of an all-rounder!

With under six minutes to go, the Giants had come from behind to go into the lead. But, the lead see-sawed for the next few minutes. In the 17th minute, a lion-hearted effort initiated by Parvesh Bhainswal got Ajay Thakur on the bench and the Giants back level.

Sachin Tanwar and Ajay Kumar had dominated proceedings as we went into the break with a two-point advantage. The contribution was raider heavy, as Sachin, Ajay and Mahendra combined for 13 out of our 16 first-half points.

Giants Run Away with the Game

Early in the second half, Ruturaj tackled strong, and Sachin raided merry. The Thalaivas had no answer as the Giants exploded with a 10-2 run, including an all-out to achieve a 10-point lead.

Sachin Tanwar was in some mood on the night, and he completed his 8th career Super 10 with as much ease as he had gotten the rest of the points. It was also our first Super 10 this season. Ajay Kumar was trailing him by 3 raid points. The question was, could the Giants complete two Super 10s in one game? The answer is no, but Ajay’s effort was no lesser!

The defense too made their presence felt against the Thalaivas. Parvesh and Ruturaj were on the money and ensured that Ajay Thakur stayed on the bench for as long as possible. Astonishingly, at the 33-minute mark, Ajay Thakur had spent one-third of the game on the bench – a telling stat!

With just under 4 minutes left on the clock, the Thalaivas were under pressure and in disarray. Mistakes came thick and fast for the Chennai-based outfit, and our lead kept growing.

In the end, the Giants completed a convincing 11-point win. Two wins on the trot, the Giants are back. Watch out, rest of the VIVO PKL. The Giants have arrived to do giant things.