Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Top five raiders from the Chennai leg 

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Deepak Hooda had a great match against UP Yoddha in Chennai.

The curtain came down on the Chennai leg of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 on last Thursday and while it may have proved to be an unsuccessful one for the home team, the Tamil Thalaivas, the same cannot be said with regards to the raiders.

The audience witnessed some exceptional skills and talent on the kabaddi mat with numerous players coming to the fore and leading the attack for their respective teams. In this article, we bring to you the best five raiders from the last week.

#5: Deepak Niwas Hooda (Puneri Paltan)

The skipper of the Pune team led his team from the front and amassed a total of 22 points from the two matches, thus finishing the leg with an average of 11 raid points per match.

He was particularly rampant in the match against the UP Yoddhas, wherein he helped his team stage a comeback from a potential all-out with some stellar raiding under pressure and eventually powered them to a win by a slender margin of just one point.

#4: Maninder Singh (Bengal Warriors)

Maninder has been a vital asset for the Bengal Warriors.
Maninder has been a vital asset for the Bengal Warriors.

The comeback man has been brilliant in the recent legs of PKL, and continues to showcase his golden form in Chennai as well when the Bengal Warriors locked horns against the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Inter-Zonal encounter.

He rendered the rival defence featuring the likes of Manjeet Chillar, Sunil and Kamal Kishor absolutely hapless with his constant attacking strides in both the halves. He picked up 16 raid points in that match, which was half of the total 32 points of his side and thus bolstered his team in a match that went down to the wire.

#3: Rahul Chaudhari (Telugu Titans)

Rahul was rampant against the home side, Tamil Thalaiavas.
Rahul was rampant against the home side, Tamil Thalaiavas

In the South Indian derby when the Telugu Titans clashed against the hosts. Tamil Thalaivas, the poster boy of Indian kabaddi completely ripped apart the rival defence with his 16 raid points. His agility and swiftness were evident with his rampant runs in the rival half wherein he did not allow the defence to pick up just a single tackle point.

With that particular outing, Rahul also took his tallies of Super-10 to 7 in the league and his total raid points to 177, just second behind the leader Pardeep Narwal.

#2: Rohit Kumar (Bengaluru Bulls)

Rohit led the attacking charge of the Bengaluru Bulls.
Rohit led the Bulls' attacking charge against the Tamil Thalaiavs on the last day of the Chennai leg

The last match of the Chennai leg also ended with a raid fest, with the talismanic skipper of the Bengaluru Bulls lighting the kabaddi mat on fire with his attack against the Thalaivas.

He made inroads into the rival on numerous occasions displaying a range of his raid skills and went on to amass 17 raid points in that match and thus propelled his team to a win by a big margin of 10 points in that clash.

#1: Ajay Thakur (Tamil Thalaivas)

Ajay was exceptional in the Chennai leg unlike his team's performance.
Ajay was exceptional in the Chennai leg unlike the rest of his team

His team might have had a dismal run in the home leg but Ajay Thakur finished the week on a good note with regards to his individual performance. He was more determined than ever and one saw that when it came to his exceptional raiding with every passing encounter but he lacked support from the rest of the squad. Ajay amassed a total of 74 raid points in 6 matches which included a 20 point outing against the Telugu Titans. Thus, he was stupendous with his attack but could not inspire the team with his example and thus it remained a lost cause.

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Edited by Anuradha Santhanam