Birmingham, 17 August 2014: Punjab Thunder registers their first win by defeating California Eagles by 65-48 in the seventh match of the Wave World Kabaddi League 2014 today here in Birmingham at the LG Arena. Last week both the teams California Eagles and Punjab Thunder lost their first matches against Royal Kings USA and United Singhs respectively. Next week the league travels to India with opening matches in New Delhi from 23^rd to 31^st August 2014.

Punjab Thunder registers their 1st win by defeating California Eagles by 65-48 in the seventh match of Wave World Kabaddi League 2014

The opening phase of the first quarter started with much pulsating moment by Rana Alishan of Punjab Thunder stopping the raider from California Eagles in the first strike owning a point for his team and lead by the Punjab Thunder. From the very beginning the team of Punjab Thunder have gained over the raiders from California Eagles thereby climbing the points tally at a seven points lead. Desperate efforts were made by the California Eagles who tried their level best to put the Punjab Thunder at a halt, Stopper Balkhar Singh of California Eagles made some quick moves to capture raiders of the later team but the Punjab Thunder were inevitable to the California Eagles who were trailed way behind the Punjab Thunder eventually resulting at 11 -18 at the points tally.

With the lead of 7 points in the 1^st quarter Punjab Thunder started the first raid on a positive note by scoring first point of the 2^nd quarter for the team. Punjab Thunder looked fully composed and scored points on every raid and all the stoppers also outperformed by stopping the raiders of California Eagles. Yadwinder, Khusdeep Singh, Sarabjit Singh and Anil Kumar were the star raiders for the Punjab Thunder. Rana Alishan was the star stopper for Punjab Thunder. Punjab Thunder maintained the lead and at one point in time took the lead of 7 points to 10 points in the match. But California Eagles bounced back and scored one point for the team through the double touch foul by Punjab Thunders. Baldev Singh Brar aka Babbu Jalal made a swift and agile move to win a couple of points for California Eagles.  In the final raid Khusdeep of Punjab Thunder was stopped by Hosiyar Singh taking one point for the team and reduced the point difference to 8 points with final score of 25 -33 on the scoreboard.

The third quarter started with much exuberance where teams clashed with each other trying to ensure a lead over the other. With California Eagles showing some excellent move to gain extra points over the Punjab Thunder. Couple of break through by California Eagles, as similar to the first quarter in getting the team an early breakthrough thereby shrink the point’s difference. Balkar Singh and Amarinder Singh of the California Eagles squad were desperate and shown some excellent moves to win the heart of the crowd but gradually Punjab Thunder were able to maintain a wide margin by their poised performance to the end of the quarter. Rana Alishan of Punjab Thunder was the invincible stopper who was able to maintain a consistent performance to the end with a table score of 37- 49 a lead of 12 points over the Californian Eagles.

The fourth quarter started with a point difference of 12 points. Both the team’s showcased good performance but Punjab Thunder stole the show from California Eagles with the help of good raids by Sarabjit Singh and Satwinder Singh. The match ended with a huge point difference of 17 points and got a win for Punjab Thunder with final score of 65-48.

• Man of the match :Yadwinder Singh (Punjab Thunder)
• Best Raider: Sarabjit Singh – Punjab Thunder (20 raids)
• Best Stopper: Yadwinder Singh – Punjab Thunder (9 stops)

Team position (California Eagles Vs Punjab Thunder)

Next week’s match schedule:

Tags: Birmingham, California Eagles, Kabaddi, LG Arena, Punjab Thunder, Wave WKL, Wave World Kabaddi League, WKL, World Kabaddi League