Pro Kabaddi League: Jaipur paints Patna pink with stunning all-round display
by a good 20 point margin in the end
9 August 2014, Patna: As the weekend arrived, all roads in Patna led to Pataliputra Stadium as the crowds gathered to witness India’s greatest Kabaddi spectacle the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League. Celebrating the league’s second last day in the city, all Kabaddi fans in Patna turned up in huge numbers to watch 7-men armies take on each other. The first clash of the night- a contest between the ascending Jaipur Pink Panthers and the resilient Telegu Titans.
While both the team needed the win- Jaipur to jump right to the second spot and the Titans to allow themselves some sort of redemption; it was the Pink Panthers who emerged victorious. Two completely different looking halves saw the Jaipur team thrashing the Titans by a good 20 point margin in the end.
After a couple of empty raids the Jaipur team got the first points on the board thanks to an athletic Rohit Rana who did not let his broken jaw stand in the way of a successful raid. The Men in Pink were oozing confidence, coming fresh from a win in their last encounter against Delhi, but it was the Telegu Titans who got off to a better start. A closely contested match, the Telegu Titans soon gathered momentum as Rahul Chaudhury spun his web on the Antis.
Sparks flew as Deepak took off Jasvir Singh and Rohit Rana at one go. Rahul Chaudhury came good again as he successfully touched Navneet Gautam and returned safe, extending the Titans’ lead. Consequently, Titan scored their first LONA points. The first half came to a close as Jaipur’s Maninder Singh, took down Rahul Chaudhury and D. Gopu in a spectacular tackle. Titans Rahul Chaudhury and Deepak Hooda scored 7 points each, took their team to a score of 20-16 in their favour.
The second half, however, saw a complete change of fate as Jaipur’s Jasvir Singh decided to join the party. The half-time break was indeed a game changer for the men in pink as Jasvir Singh started ousting the Titans one after the other. Maninder did an encore, as he took Gopu down in a fashion identical to his previous raid. As Navneet Gautam made way for Maninder Singh, the latter justified the stance by taking Titan Skipper Rajguru out.
The Titans crumbled as Deepak Niwas’ reverse-scorpion kick failed to the Jaipur defence. A rejuvenated Jaipur side, riding high on Jasvir Singh’s successful raids and Rana’s strong defence raced ahead further and further. The score finally read 29-49 as the pink Panthers scored their maiden LONA points with the final whistle.