Jaipur Pink Panthers record 10-point win over Dabang Delhi
22nd August, 2014:
The League's newest table toppers entered their Pink clad battleground amongst roars from their fans who had turned up in encouraging numbers at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium. Playing against a Dabang Delhi team, the Pink army made up for an ordinary first half, in the second, destroying the Delhi team, taking the score to 31-41 at the end of forty minutes.
Touted to be a contest between two of the best defenders in the league- Jasmer Singh of Delhi and Panther Navneet Gautam, the match was a perfect successor of the earlier action-filled clash between Vizag and Bengal. Though the defence of both the teams looked strong, the raiders added fuel to the fire- Jasvir Singh and Rajesh Narwal led the Jaipur battalion and Kashiling Adake doing the damage from the Dabang's side.
A big break for Jaipur came in very first minute as Surjeet Narwal, Delhi's star raider was captured. Delhi's Kashiling Adake, however decided to make amends as he showed Rajesh Narwal and Rohit Rana the exit, one after the other. Jaipur started to fall weak as Maninder Singh fell for Jasmer Singh's tackle, followed by a sloppy tackle from Navneet Gautam, which saw him walking to the dug-out.
The Adake assault continued as Jaipur was reduced to just two Panthers in the 9th minute and consequently Jaipur conceded the first LONA points of the match in the next minute. A fully-revived Jaipur team sensed some relief as the danger-man Kashiling Adake was tackled down. A brilliant two-point raid from Maninder narrowed Dabang's lead to four points, followed by another successful raid by Jasvir Singh. At halftime the scores were 16-18 in favour of the visitors.
The second-half began as the crowd broke into a euphoric cheer when Jaipur earned their first LONA points. After an interval of empty raids Surjeet Narwal ousted Ran Singh but Jasvir Singh paid back, taking Jasmer Singh out of the equation. By the 26th minute both the teams were 5-men-a-side. Delhi slowly started to fall apart as Maninder overthrew Kashiling Adake, reducing Delhi to just two players.
The onus then fell on Surjeet Narwal who revived captain Jasmer Singh, only to lose him in the next seven seconds. Jaipur soon earned their second LONA points, taking their lead to seven points. Delhi's defence began to crumble as Jasmer Singh. Amit Singh and Sunil Jaipal came back on the bench. Delhi's decline continued at a steady pace as Surjeet Narwal was tackled, giving Jaipur their third set of LONA points.
By fulltime, the Panthers had mauled the Dabang Delhi team by 10 points.