Yet another day, yet another defeat have been the norm of the home team in last three days. The locals were so happy seeing them give a real fight yesterday expecting them to go uphill. To their disappointment, the immature tackles at times handed the home team a real drubbing today.
Defender Darshan – A shining light
Like yesterday, the unexpected hero in the form of defender Maruthu, today the home team found Darshan.
He was even more impressive than Maruthu, throwing one of the best raiders in the tournament Rohit from Bengaluru Bulls. Rohit was visibly bemused when the youngster Darshan caught him off guard.
He had a strike rate of 75% with 6 successful tackles out of all 8, he attempted. The one positive for the home team is they have two really good defenders to build the team from now on. Maruthu and Darshan are two real stars in the making especially the latter is very young and energetic. Even though he looks stout, he is really swift in his moves around the blocks.
Rohit – The Raid Machine
As everyone would expect, it was more of a battle between Rohit and Ajay today. Both were at each other’s throat, but Rohit won the competition hands down gaining a whopping 17 points in his 24 raids. While Ajay scored 15 points in all his 21 raids, he scored very quickly in the dying minutes of the match to catch up with Rohit.
Rohit is such a strong and smart raider especially in those do-or-die raids which resulted in all outs for Thalaivas. The long levers and swift moves are the biggest assets of Rohit’s raids forging a deadly combo for the defenders. As the defence of Thalaivas is already weak which was evident from last few matches, Rohit hardly struggled except for Darshan.
Ajay Kumar – The Time (Stealth) Killer
Even though he just scored six points in total, through the entire match, those were game changing. Especially the one he had of Ajay Thakur at a crucial juncture, when the momentum was shifting to Thalaivas. He was the circuit breaker that altered the course heavily in favor of Bulls. He was very cunning with his rides especially in the last few minutes just wasting time watching the clock during raids. A section of the crowd was booing him for his unsporting behavior which never seemed to bother him. Finally, the Bulls won 45-35 against Thalaivas which is a big margin compared to yesterday scoreline against Yoddhas.
Thalaivas Winless Home Turf – A Curse
The smartest of the raiders Ajay Thakur and the unassuming Prapanjan are the two bolsters for the Thalaivas this season in the last six matches at Chennai. In all, Ajay scored a wholesome 74 raid points which gives an indicator of how stellar his raids were in the last 6 games. Not to forget, Prapanjan who scored a handful 33 points in forging a partnership with the skipper.
They both did their best but eventually the big letdown was the defenders and other raiders like Vineet. Vineet was really neither smart nor willing to go the extra mile like Prapanjan for the team even today. Maruthu and Darshan along with Ajay and Prapanjan are the key players to build the team for the future.
Ajay was visibly emotional when the crowd cheered him since it’s the last game as they cannot make it to playoffs. He was bowing down to the crowd thinking how will I give them a home win at least next season?
