The 7th Season of the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League 2019, is underway in all its glory. This multi-million dollar franchise has been growing exponentially in both popularity as well as revenue every year, ever since its inception in 2014. With almost seven weeks still to go till the end of this campaign, we take a look at the best moments so far:
Suraj Desai, brother of ‘Baahubali’ Siddharth, made his debut for Telugu Titans against Dabang Delhi K.C. The youngster went on to produce the most prolific debut performance of all time in VIVO Pro Kabaddi history, scoring 18 points. He beat the previous record of 15, which was set by Rakesh Kumar way back in Season 1 and his brother last season. Suraj’s performance was even more amazing considering it took just 15 raids to get his 18 points. The debutant also had an impressive zero unsuccessful raids on the night.
The new season also saw the start of the managerial careers of Anup Kumar and Rakesh Kumar, two greats of the VIVO Pro Kabaddi franchisee, with 146 VIVO Pro Kabaddi appearances between them. The duo are also ex-teammates and close friends off the mat. The match saw Anup’s Puneri Paltans take on Rakesh’s Haryana Steelers, with the latter getting the win after a highly engaging and entertaining clash.
The Tamil Thalaivas’ ‘Showman’, Rahul Chaudhari, added a milestone to his PKL career against the Patna Pirates. He became the first man to score 900 points in the Pro Kabaddi League history, after winning his team a touchpoint on Hadi Oshtorak. Chaudhari has been the league’s trendsetter, ever since the first campaign, breaking several records along the way. He could soon become the first man in VIVO Pro Kabaddi history to break the 1000-point barrier, which would really be an amazing feat in itself.
Bengal Warriors captain, Maninder Singh, has been the main reason for their continued success in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League Season 7. One of the primary reasons for their success has been the form of who’s the team’s top scorer with 68 points, he became only the eighth player to score 600 points in PKL history with his 65th point of the season. He was instrumental in Bengal Warriors scoring eight of a possible 10 points during the Chennai leg, in their quest to finish in the top two and secure a spot in the semi-finals. While seven other players have reached the 600-point milestone, only Pardeep Narwal did it in fewer games than Maninder(63vs68).
Bengaluru Bulls’ ‘Hi-Flyer’ Pawan Sehrawat, arguably the best raider of the tournament, became the first player in the Pro Kabaddi League, Season 7, to surpass 100 raid points, albeit in a loss against Puneri Paltans. Sehrawat is an impressive 17 raid points ahead of than next-best Pardeep Narwal, despite having played a game fewer. He is also one of only two raiders in the league averaging over 10 raid points per game, along with Dabang Delhi K.C.’s Naveen Kumar. Sehrawat’s 29-point performance against Bengal Warriors earlier this season was the third-highest individual score in the history of the tournament.
