Jaipur Pink Panthers move to third spot with 31-18 win over Puneri Paltan
Puneri Paltan suffered yet another defeat, this time in Delhi at the hands of Jaipur Pink Panthers. With a 31-18 win, the Panthers, who were without Jasvir Singh and Navneet Gautam, moved to 3rd spot in the league table. It was a team performance for the Panthers as Rajesh Narwal scored 6 points while Sonu Narwal, Ran Singh and Kuldeep Singh scored 5 each.
Jaipur Pink Panthers’ star of the last few matches, Sonu Narwal was tackled by the Puneri Paltan defenders in the first raid of the match. It wasn’t until the 5th minute that a raider returned successfully from his raid when Mahipal Narwal stretched to win a bonus point as the scoreline read 3-1 in favour of the Paltans.
The Panthers caught Wazir Singh while Sonu Narwal got a point in his raid as the Panthers levelled the score 2 minutes later. Tushar Patil and Wazir Singh helped Pune regain the lead and in the 13th minute the Panthers trailed 4-7. However, that was the moment when the Prashant Chavan-led side turned the corner.
Jaipur went on a 9-point run through successful raids by the Narwals – Rajesh and Sonu, who completed the all out in the 17th minute to establish a 6-point lead (13-7). The Abhishek Bachchan-owned side outscored the Paltans 3-1 in the final minutes of the half as the Panthers led 16-8 at half-time.
Jaipur maintain momentum
Sachin V. got the first point of the second half, while Kuldeep Singh restored Panthers’ 8-point lead (17-9) in the subsequent raid. The Paltans went on a 4-point run to get the deficit down to 4 (17-13), but Ran Singh changed the momentum with an agile raid which saw him jump over a helpless Mahipal Narwal. By the 30th minute, the Panthers closed in on the win by leading 19-13.
In the 32nd minute Rajesh Narwal sparked life into the match by sparking the beginning of another all out on the team from Maharasthra. Sonu Narwal was the one who put an end to Pune’s misery by completing the second all out of the match in the 37th minute as Jaipur led 27-15.
In the final few minutes, when the result was almost secured, both teams handed debuts to foreigners – Jaipur to Kazuhiro Takano and Pune to Simon Kibura. Jaipur completed a 31-18 win over Puneri Paltan as they moved to 3rd spot in the league table while Pune stayed at the bottom.
Man of the match: Rajesh Narwal