Jaipur Pink Panthers managed to hold their nerve to secure their third consecutive win, clinching a thrilling contest against Puneri Paltan 30-28 at the Noida Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
A High 5 from Ankush Rathee and Arjun Deshwal’s 8 point helped the Jaipur Pink Panthers jump to second place in the points table.
It was an intriguing start from the two finalists from Season 9, trading blow for blow in the opening exchanges. The Jaipur Pink Panthers sprung into action, getting themselves a three-point lead after some solid work from Ankush Rathee in the defensive end. It didn’t take them too long to inflict the 'All Out' of the game either, courtesy of a raid from Arjun Deshwal, extending the lead to six points for the Season 9 champions.
Jaipur Pink Panthers kept their foot on the pedal and extended their lead to nine points, after an unsuccessful do-or-die raid from Pankaj Mohite as he was tackled by Ankush Rathee. Their defense was dictating terms, restricting the Puneri Paltan to only four raid points in the first fifteen minutes of the match.
Despite it being a tough first half for the Puneri Paltan raiders, their defenders kept them within striking distance as they kept chipping away from time to time. The first half closed off in a rather sedate manner with the Jaipur Pink Panthers having a seven-point lead with the scoreline reading 19-12.
Abinesh Nadarajan got the first tackle of the second half, that started off in a serene manner. There was only one touch point in the opening 20 minutes for Puneri Paltan as the Jaipur Pink Panthers kept their discipline and made it incredibly difficult to get touch points for the raiders.
Ankush Rathee completed his High 5 for the Jaipur Pink Panthers after a tackle on Akash Shinde, keeping the point difference at eight points. However, the Puneri Paltan finally managed to close the gap courtesy of a Super Raid from Akash Shinde. That was followed by a tackle from Sanket Sawant, inflicting an 'All Out' on the Jaipur Pink Panthers to cut it down to a two-point game.
It was anybody’s game in the final phase of the contest with the Jaipur Pink Panthers clinging on to their narrow lead. Arjun Deshwal was doing his bit to make sure that his team remains in the lead, before he was tackled by Gaurav Khatri to make it a one-point game with a little over two minutes remaining.
Reza Mirbagheri got a crucial tackle on V Ajith Kumar during a Do-or-Die Raid to keep the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the lead. With the game coming down to the final raid, Ankush Rathee came in clutch for the Jaipur Pink Panthers, tackling Akash Shinde to secure a 30-28 game for the Season 9 champions.
In the first match of the day, table-toppers Haryana Steelers defeated Tamil Thalaivas 36-29 in a closely-fought Pro Kabaddi League match.
For Steelers, Mohammadreza Shadloui's seven points -- including a High 5 -- grabbed the win. A cautious approach defined the first half of the game, with both Thalaivas and Steelers relying on do-or-die raids to secure points.
The Steelers prevailed with a calm and collected two-point raid from Vinay, as Manpreet Singh and his men inflicted the 'All Out' to secure a much-deserved win.
