Pro Kabaddi 2019: Jaipur Pink Panthers snatch victory away from Bengal Warriors' grasp to win 27-25
After destroying their respective opponents in their first match of the season, Jaipur and Bengal went head-to-head in Mumbai in the first match of the leg. Both the teams were backing themselves after such strong performances against U Mumba and UP Yoddha respectively.
This match saw many players reach their milestones; Maninder Singh got his 450th raid point while Sandeep Dhull got his 50th tackle point. K Prapanjan from Bengal Warriors was effective in the first half but Sandeep Dhull from Jaipur Pink Panthers (JPP) made sure that he was nullified in the second half. The strong tackle on Baldev Singh in the last minute confirmed that Jaipur could inflict an All Out for Bengal.
This match was started by Bengal Warriors taking the command in the early minutes of the match when Rinku Narwal took on a Nilesh Salunke (JPP) who looked like he was relaxing in the opponents side as the scorecard read 0-4. K Prapanjan made his mark in the match by constantly summing up a touch point through his raids which saw him get 6 raid points in his 9 raids in the first half.
It was a close game until Baldev Singh pranced on another napping Jaipur raider, this time the substitute Ajinkya Pawar took a 4-point lead for Bengal Warriors. Baldev again struck on Jaipur when he brought a flying Deepak Narwal down to the ground in the 18th minute. Bengal Warriors made a smart move when they forced Jaipur to play through their Do-or-Die Raid in the last raid of the half which helped them get an extra point when Ajinkya Pawar’s dangling hand couldn’t cross the mid-line. The half ended with the score being 10-14.
The second half saw a different Jaipur Pink Panthers enter the match as they tried to get back from the slump. They got really close to Bengal Warriors when Ajinkya Pawar entered the lobby and Rinku Narwal also entered the lobby with Mohammad Nabibaksh to take the technical points in the 25th minute to make it 15-16.
Maninder Singh made sure that this didn’t affect Bengal Warriors much as he got rid of the captain Deepak Hooda in the very next raid in addition to a bonus point. Sandeep Dhull made efforts to keep Jaipur in the game with constant tackle points as confirmed by his tackle on K Prapanjan’s dubki.
He got his 50th tackle point in the 34th minute of the match. Bengal Warriors continued to gain points as Jaipur Pink Panthers couldn’t increase their score with a strong Super Tackle effort on Deepak Hooda in the 37th minute by Baldev Singh from behind his back.
Mohammad Taghi’s late entry in the 39th minute caused Jaipur the advantage to bounce back in the dying moments of the match. With an All-out being inflicted by Jaipur Pink Panthers in the 40th minute to snatch the lead, it was all dependent on Maninder Singh to get a quick point. Deepak Hooda had a different plan as he finally got a point to confirm Jaipur’s victory over Bengal by 27-25.